


One Last Chance to be Good

by GirlDressedInBlack



Series: One Last Chance [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-07-27 13:52:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 53
Words: 40,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7620907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GirlDressedInBlack/pseuds/GirlDressedInBlack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missy had a companion once- before the cybermen and after facing the wrath of the Time Lord council. She chose as the Doctor would; a young woman from England- around the 21st century. After all they never refused the Doctor for long- why would they refuse her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I had an odd dream- it gave me plot bunnies- I give you this story. It shouldn't interfere with canon, I don't own anything and sorry about Missy's OOCness but it's part of the plot so *shrugs*. Hope you enjoy!

Missy had a companion once. A long time ago, before she turned everyone into cybermen but after she faced the wrath of the Time Lord Council. Not her first but she dearly hoped the last- not that the Doctor would find out for a long time.

"One last chance at being good, eh?" She had justified it to herself, seeing as the drums were no more and she had a completely new body to test out.

She had chosen as the Doctor would. A young, vaguely pretty girl (their opinions did differ on beauty it seems) and a dreamer, as the two of them had been. She made sure the girl was intelligent and decided that bravery would come later, to be learned- after all, that's what keeps losing the Doctor's companions.

It also didn't hurt that she had good fashion sense.

Missy approached the girl carefully, on her way home from work as she knew the path she took and how few people also walked it. The girl had been wary, huge grin and kind eyes covering the way she was mentally going through ways to incapacitate or even kill the people around her if they came too close- at that moment they consisted of Missy and a bloke turning off that street into a side alley. Of course, normal humans couldn't tell this, but it only took the Time Lady a brush against her uncomplicated human mind for all the girl's thoughts to come tumbling to her feet.

The current threat was perceived as Missy apparently- and the current method seemed to be to go for the eye with the keys wrapped around her fingers like brass knuckles then run, aim for the nose or call an ambulance depending on the effect. Apparently she was banking on having to deal another blow and the umbrella is the most likely weapon to have to disarm.

Missy likes her already, more than she thought she would (and she had chosen based around the idea that she would have to like them).

"Excuse me?" The girl keeps walking but Missy can almost feel the spike in her adrenaline as the girl's fingers tighten around the keys, gently prodding them between them so they stick out and drawing her thumb outside of her fist and underneath so she doesn't break it. Missy repeats herself and the girl stops, glancing back nervously with a confident smile stretched over the emotion.

"Um, are you speaking to me?" Missy smiles and the girl tenses the muscles in her legs, preparing to run.

"Yes, I am. You see I was just wondering if you could tell me where your coat was from? It's awfully lovely." The girl relaxes slightly, the grin becoming more honest with the compliment.

"It's actually from a charity shop. I'm not sure where it originally came from- thank you though, your clothes are really nice too." Slowly the girl leans away, as if sensing an end to the conversation and the situation which Missy knows is still terrifying her, "Where are they from?" She adds as an afterthought, interest sparked in her mind softening her expression even in the harsh glare of the streetlamp.

"Oh, they're tailor-made- from a little shop in the late Edwardian era." Missy is certain she has caught her now. All the Doctor's companions took the bait at about this point in the conversation. She knows, she's processed the data. The girl's mind weighs up the inaccuracies and her smile returns to one of polite interest.

Missy can't believe it.

"How lovely. Have a good evening, miss." The human thinks she's senile.


	2. Chapter 2

Missy is fed up. She has been trailing the human for days and still can't figure out how to convince her to travel with her. Part of her asks why she can't just hypnotise the girl or drug her and drag her into the T.A.R.D.I.S. Then she remembers that she's trying to be good.

She wishes being good was easier.

Finally a week passes and Missy vows to never be without time-travelling devices lest she have to take 'the long route' as the Doctor calls it. Again she approaches the girl.

"Excuse me but have you been following me?" The girl spins around as the only other human near them drives away. Her feet land in a stable position and her keys are clasped tightly between her fingers. Missy takes a fraction of a millisecond to get over the shock and observes the girl.

A slight stoop bringing her centre of mass closer to the ground and knees bent to absorb impact. Anger screams through her eyes and for the first time in the whole time Missy has been tracking her, her smile has dropped slightly. A small quirk in the corner of her lips tries to maintain her usually peaceful expression but fails rather magnificently. She lets it fall completely and watches Missy coldly, ready to react to any movement.

Missy feels a thrill go through her and her own smile turns somewhat feral. She really must have her as her companion.

A slight brush over the girl's mind reveals a haze of fear and paranoia. Missy decides to answer before the girl takes the decision to walk away that is on the edge of her thoughts.

"Yes, but I had to. My reasons are perfectly rational." The girl seems thrown, brows furrowing in confusion, walking away becoming an even more likely action as the haze turns into a thick fog, sweeping through her. Decisively the girl squares her shoulders and turns. She begins walking away, heels clicking against the poured concrete.

"No, wait!" The girl ignores her and Missy catches up with her, walking alongside her.

"Now listen." The girl ignores her still, pace remaining the same, desperately trying to keep the terror inside her head.

"You will listen!" Missy's voice reverts to a Scottish twang as she grabs the girl's arm. The girl is brought to an abrupt stop, almost toppled by the change in momentum, only staying up by the key studded fist she swings for Missy's head which is promptly caught.

The girl freezes, the muscles in her legs tensing to stop her from falling before her brain registers that she's not. The thought barely flashes through her mind before she drops the whole of her, admittedly not so huge, body weight to the floor. Missy arches a finely manicured eyebrow at the girl whose panic only increases.

"Let go! What the hell?! Get off me!" The girl falls silent, dangling from Missy's hands as if a stuffed animal held by a small child. The anger has not faded from her eyes and Missy's admiration grows as she plants her feet firmly on the ground again and stands tall, reigning in her fear as much as possible. So she knows when to give in.

Missy does not release her yet.

"What is wrong with you?" On the verge of tears the girl glares up into Missy's eyes defiantly. Missy forces herself to loosen her grip, a gesture of goodwill before she ignores the question completely.

"You are infuriating," The girl stays silent, lips tight, "You are deeply annoying so now you will listen." Still she says nothing, tears creeping down her face.

"I am a Time Lady. Almost the last of my kind currently available and I will have you as my companion. Do you understand?" The girl tries to jerk her right hand from Missy's grasp, gritting her teeth when Missy warningly tightens her grip.

"I asked if you understand. I am _trying_ to be _good_."

"No, I don't bloody well understand." The girl spits out bitterly. The Time Lady rolls her eyes and tries to explain in ways that a human will understand.

"I am an alien from the planet Gallifrey, currently out of universe. My kind shun those who interact with inferior races, which is every other race, however there are a few dissenters. Two to be precise. The Doctor and myself. I will be referred to as the Mistress. The Doctor has a tendency for taking companions for his travels from this planet and this time period so I have decided to do the same. I have chosen you." Comprehension washes over the girl's mind and seems to soothe her slightly despite the fear,

"So you think you're an alien from another planet and that only you and one other alien are able to travel here at the moment. You also seem to think that I want to travel with you." The girl takes on a highly sarcastic tone, "Especially because you have been stalking me for a week, find me bloody annoying and are trying to be good by almost pinning me against a wall!" The Mistress rolls her eyes and the girl lunges towards her face teeth bared. She'll have to rescind her complement about the human knowing when to give up…

"Also- you have an odd fetish!" The girl blinks, seemingly confused by her own words. Inside her mind the words _that had no relevance whatsoever_ emblazoned themselves across her thoughts. A slight blush colours her already ruddy cheeks.

"Exclude the 'think', swap the 'I want' for a 'you want' and you are almost there. And yes, that doesn't have any relevance." The girl stares, paranoia returning to the helm and eyes widening. Missy remembers one of the lines that often changes the humans' decisions, "Did I mention I travel through time."


	3. Chapter 3

Needless to say it didn't work. The girl resumes struggling and Missy sighs. How to convince her?

"Just listen would you- and stop that struggling while you're at it. I'm much stronger than you, besides I'm offering you a chance at adventure." Right words for the Doctor's companion, wrong for her companion, "And knowledge! You like learning things don't you? You could meet some of the most influential figures in history-" She made sure not to mention the fact that it might actually be the girl's future, "discover something that could change the world," She doesn't say that the girl might have already done that, "you could even become a God of some kind!" Missy certainly doesn't tell her that she has done that before, with a different face. Throughout her speech the girl just stares. Missy grins cheesily, waiting for the girl's acceptance.

"No. I won't go anywhere with a mad-woman and I refuse to leave my family. Let me go." Once again the girl stares into Missy's eyes confidently, hiding no small amount of fear.

"Did I not say time travel?" Missy tries one last time.

"Did I not say no?" The girl mimics her. Dramatically the Mistress sighs.

"Are you sure?" Missy releases the girl's arms, pulling her umbrella from under her own arm and leaning on it.

"Yes." The girl's gaze is steely as she rubs at the bruises already forming around her wrists, fear already dissipating at the fact she is relatively unharmed. It takes all Missy's willpower not to knock the frustrating human out. Being good is so hard. Instead she flourishes her umbrella and her own T.A.R.D.I.S appears beside them in the form of a red telephone box, strange green light pouring through the open door. She turns and steps inside, invisible through the windows on the sides.

"Goodbye, Miss Florence Elizabeth Wright. I will see you next week." Missy waves her umbrella through the open door at the curious yet fearful girl. A sound almost like wind is emitted from the T.A.R.D.I.S which slowly starts to disappear.

"How did you know my name?" Chuckling Missy leans out of the door towards the nervous human again, the wind turns to a grating, grinding sound as the box settles itself down again.

"My kind can use telepathy, Miss Wright. Don't they teach you anything in school?" Some of the fear in her eyes turns to awe and the Mistress knows how little it would take to tempt her now, "If you travel with me you could learn amazing things. Things that would make your mind swim right now. You could become someone you could never be in this time period. You could be more intelligent than you ever dreamed. All you have to do is come with me." She reaches out a hand for the girl, her thoughts teeter on the edge and if Missy weren't trying to be good she would just give a small mental nudge to push her over.

Instead she uses the truth.

"I can drop you back home at this exact second, your family wouldn't realize you were gone. All of time and space for you to learn from. You wouldn't miss anything at all and what you stand to gain. Come with me, Miss Wright." She pauses, smiles as gently as her current face can, whispers, "Come with me, Florence Elizabeth Wright." The girl takes her hand…

"I'll be waiting next week, Mistress." The Mistress smiles as the girl as she releases her hand and steps back to wave, "Right here." The door closes and the girl marvels at the way it looks completely empty though she knows that it's not the truth. Inside the Mistress smiles to herself as she sets the co-ordinates for the next week.

Finally, she had her companion.


	4. Chapter 4

The doors open a week later and a rather tired looking Florence steps in from the rain. Slowly she lets out a sigh and looks around her. The Mistress smiles from the other side of the console as she closes the doors behind her.

"Good evening, Miss Wright." Before Missy can say another word the girl is speaking,

"Bad week, a lot more interesting now. Do you know how many people I've had to make up an excuse for about these bruises?" She displays her wrists to the Mistress who raises an eyebrow,

"Lots, ended up going with rope burn. They wanted it to be true anyway so all I had to do was keep a straight face and try and hide it as much as possible." Missy smiles at the human who slowly smiles back, tirade at an end.

"So, introductions! This is my T.A.R.D.I.S- Time and Relative Dimensions in Space-" She opens her mouth and winks cheesily at the bemused girl, "I call her Sexy though." Florence nods and opens her mouth to speak only for Missy to clamp a hand over it. The girl's eyes widen in shock,

"There will be time for questions at the end, Miss Wright. As I was saying- Sexy travels in time and space, is in a state of temporal grace, which for you primitive humans means that she is everywhere at the same time, is linked to me symbiotically and runs on Huon energy, can match herself with her surroundings to avoid detection and is dimensionally transcendental, which for you-"

"-Means there is more space inside her than it would seem from outside?" The Mistress smiles,

"Good, I was beginning to think you had left your brain outside." Missy sits on the edge of her console, leaning forwards with her chin on her palm, "And I- of course- am the Mistress. Rebel Time Lady in a corset at your service. Now is the time for questions Miss Wright." The girl brings out a notebook from her bag, flips a few pages and begins to read,

"First things first, why me?"

"You're interesting, this question however is not, next." The girl just nods and moves on,

"How safe is this?"

"As safe as you make it, of course that wouldn't be any fun though…" Florence makes a note of this.

"Why are you so strong?"

"Superior Time Lord Physiology."

"And cold?"

"Superior Time Lord Physiology." The girl raises an eyebrow and Missy sighs theatrically, "Really regretting promising that learning- Our bodies can run cooler so expend less energy. We're more practical than most species."

"Enemies I should know about?" The woman shrugs wanly,

"Not sure, used to kill them all but I'm trying to be good now. You'll have to get used to running."

"Bad habits?"

"Oh, come on. You're on a ship that travels time and space, with an alien who can get you anywhere and you're asking about her habits?" The girl sighs, writing down the response and crossing through something else, flipping a few pages and crossing out several more lines, "Give it here!" Florence hands the book over and Missy flicks to the start of the questions. After a few seconds of silence, albeit the sound of pages turning, Missy hands the book back.

"T'was a page turner. I could hardly put it down." Rolling her eyes she hops down to the floor, "And here are your answers-" Missy cups the girl's cheek in her hand and grins, looking her in the eyes.

"This may hurt." The girl barely has time to let out an exclamation of shock before she slumps into the Time Lady's arms.

"Well... What to do now…"


	5. Chapter 5

Missy finally decides to put the unresponsive human in the medical bay and make a cup of tea to while away the time until she awakes.

"I don't know how he travels with humans, they're always falling asleep or getting injured. It only took a little psychic transfer to knock her out- we'll have to fix that." The T.A.R.D.I.S hums in the back of her mind and Missy places her teacup on the saucer with a warning glance to the ceiling,

"Don't you dare move it." The impression of laughter fills her head and the Mistress can't help but smile at one of oldest allies. It had been a long time since they had been in agreement, a few regenerations even.

"Let's go join the primitive ape then."

When Missy reaches the room the human is pushing at her temples as if it will keep her mind together.

"What did you do to me?" As an afterthought to the speech the girl raises her head to stare at the Time Lady through darkened eyes. Missy feels something close to sympathy at the intense sense of confusion and pain emanating from the figure sat on the bed.

"Just a little data transfer- the answers to your questions mostly. You seem to be quite… uncomfortable." The girl huffs, "Okay, your mind feels like it's thawing and burning at the same time- big deal- you'll get over it in a while. It won't make you feel better but you are currently having the worst reaction I have ever seen from a human to a psychic transference." The human's mouth twitches and a heavily sarcastic quip is displayed at the forefront of the girl's mind. Missy has no doubt that, if she were capable, it would be coming from the human's mouth.

"Anyway, that's something that we can fix. Can't have any companion of mine being susceptible to psychic attacks." The Mistress perches on the bed, legs crossing and carefully manicured hands clasped in her lap. Florence eyes her warily, leaning away from the woman to put a little more distance between her face and the red tipped fingers.

"More pain?" The girl only just manages to get the words out. Missy's lips pull into a smile that just barely makes it out of intimidating.

"Of course my dear! But we wouldn't want you to be at the mercy of my enemies would we? They'd split your head open like ripe fruit!" The girl scowls irritably and answers very levelly.

"No."

Missy stares at the human, slightly offended and very shocked.

Resolute and angry, the human glares back.

Slowly the girl's expression shifts to neutral. Then to resigned.

"It would be the better idea wouldn't it?" The girl looks at her knees, a large amount of the tension that had been gathering in her released. At this Missy draws a blank.

"How did you do that?" The human raises an eyebrow at the Mistress, folding her hands in her lap.

"Do what?" The Time Lady gestures to the girl as a whole,

"That thing where you said no then you didn't. What was that?" Florence shrugs her shoulders sarcastically,

"I changed my mind. Haven't you ever done it?" The Mistress rolls her eyes exasperatedly.

"Yes, of course I've done it. I mean how did you?"

"I thought about the outcome of both choices and decided the safest one was the one you suggested- what the hell do you mean ' _how did you do that?'_." The Mistress inspects her nails haughtily.

"Well. I just hadn't seen a human do it before. I presumed you primitive apes couldn't. Logical thinking doesn't exactly seem to be in your species repertoire." She responds pointedly. The girl sighs as if dealing with a particularly uneducated child and Missy hears the T.A.R.D.I.S chuckle in her mind which does not help her feeling of indignity.

"Unfortunately it is a skill few seek to further." The girl hops off of the bed and turns to face Missy, "Anyway, what are we going to do now?" Grinning as if her confusion had never existed, the Mistress almost leaps from the white sheets to join her companion on the floor.

"I'm glad you asked, Miss Wright!"


	6. Chapter 6

It turns out that Missy has a rather extensive list of things to do before Florence sets foot outside the T.A.R.D.I.S, even back on to twenty-first century Earth.

Or rather, she has a long list of things for the girl to do so she doesn't die upon her first (Missy doesn't count herself, she didn't try to kill the girl) meeting with an alien species.

The first of which involves numerous vaccinations.

"You _know_ how many different kinds of things you humans can get infected with on Earth- just imagine how many there are in the whole history- and future- of everywhere. Don't want you to be ill in case we have to make a quick departure." So the girl sighs, rolls up her sleeve and lets the Mistress go to work. Leaving isn't really an option when you're facing a sentient spaceship, a Time Lady and the knowledge you would never learn.

Sometimes Florence wonders if her priorities are a little skewed.

"Think you could throw in a vaccination for every common cold that will ever exist while you're at it?" The Mistress just laughs and readies the first needle.

"Oh, we might as well while you're here!" Florence almost tells Missy she was being sarcastic, "This will hurt quite a lot but don't worry- I'll sedate you if you start trying to claw anyone's eyes out." Her eyes scan over the needles as she speaks, "We've got a fair few needles so this will take a long time but, hey! Who's counting, certainly not me and probably not you once your body starts fighting back!" She winks cheesily and Florence feels a slight sting in her arm as the needle is withdrawn. One down. She makes a conscious effort to avert her eyes as Missy dismantles the needle, throws it away and picks up the next.

Another pinprick.

Two down.

"Are you feeling okay Miss Wright?" She nods,

"Yes. I presume I will start to feel ill in several hours." She pauses as there is another pain in her arm, "How safe is it to put all these pathogens into my body at the same time? Surely the immune response will be much more violent?" The Mistress grins at the now, quite concerned patient.

"Don't worry, that's why we're only doing _three_ for now. We'll do more when you're back on your feet again." She passes a plaster to Florence who sighs peeling the plastic from the back and carefully placing it over all three cuts.

"So how many sessions will it take to immunise me forever?" The Mistress is quiet for several seconds.

"Oh… Not more than about... a few thousand, millions?" She beams and the human winces, placing two fingers to the bridge of her nose, eyes closing exasperatedly.

"Will I still be under fifty by the time you finish?" Missy purses her lips,

"Well, technically- no, not by an incredibly large margin." Before the girl interrupts the Time Lady continues, " _But_ \- I have some fairly good knowledge about reversing or speeding up aging so that won't be an issue." Eyebrows are raised.

"Knowledge?" The Mistress shrugs sheepishly,

"Well, yes, knowledge. Also a _wee_ bit of experience." She pinches her index finger and thumb together to indicate the _tiny_ bit of experience she has had in the area of age adjustment.

"You've had experience of fiddling with people's ages. Including to make them older." Deadpan. The Mistress nods,

"You see- the Doctor kept getting in my way-"

"You aged the only other member of your species because they annoyed you."

"Well, when you put it-"

"The only other person who could relate-"

"Oh, for Pete's sake! Yes, I aged him because he was trying to stop me from doing what I wanted- happy now?" The Mistress finally snaps, she gives out a dramatic sigh then continues, "Now we're here to get you ready to go and learn more things than you ever could in the twenty-first century. Any more questions Miss Wright?" Florence is sure that she could have died right then, if not from the Mistress suddenly deciding to give up on the whole 'trying to be good' thing then from the worry about how many ways this could go magnificently wrong.

"How long will this take exactly?" The Mistress removes her rubber gloves and puts them through a slot labelled 'medical waste incinerator'. For a few seconds there is silence.

"So, with every mammalian infecting pathogen that exists… That comes to 399042497500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Earth years _ish_." The girl just stares.

"I'm going to be ill for all that time?" Missy nods,

"Don't worry though, any second now the sedative will start to kick in and then you won't remember any of it." Florence stares at the Mistress, trying to decide if she is joking (because from the little she knows of her that sounds plausible) or whether she is telling the truth (because from the little she knows of her that sounds equally plausible).

"Did the other one of your species do this to his companions?" The Mistress sniffs, seemingly offended by the question.

"Of course not, they would be in a lot of pain. He would never risk them leaving. _He_ just looked after them as best he could." The girl nods, sinking back against the chair as the drug takes hold.

"Why do you have every illness ever on your spaceship anyway?"


	7. Chapter 7

When the Mistress awakens she is somewhat surprised that she fell asleep in the first place. Disinterestedly she glances around the room. The girl is still sleeping, seemingly near the end of recovery.

The needles are gone. Frantically she begins searching for them.

"Where did you put them you stupid box?" The T.A.R.D.I.S directs her to the screen embedded in the wall.

"Oh, so you want to play it that way then? You do know these inoculations are semi-vital to her survival depending on the circumstances." Missy rolls her eyes at the ceiling and taps the screen. Almost immediately a holograph is projected between the wall and the Time Lady. If she had a concept of personal space she might have stepped away, but as it was she didn't, instead arching an eyebrow at her hologram who seems to eye her just as disinterestedly. Their staring competition finishes as the projection begins to speak.

"Oh, fine, you win! You should be happy about that you know. Anyway, I'm just recording this message to tell you that you have finished the entire course of injections, complete with targeted memory erasure for both her and you, including the body age reversal. You have probably just woken up with no memory of the past 399042497500000000000000000000000000000000000000000002 years (you were slightly out there, shame to say) and a sleeping, almost completely recovered companion. You're lucky that you're not going to remember how boring it was. I'd be thankful for that if I were you, which I am. Go make yourself a cup of tea or something while you wait for her to wake up. And if you don't trust me, get the T.A.R.D.I.S to do a scan. You do not want to have to do that ever again. Happy forgettance, me." With a bitter scowl the projection disappears. Missy decides to take her own advice and has the T.A.R.D.I.S do a scan of the girl on the bed. When everything comes up clear Missy finally makes herself a cup of tea to celebrate the hard work she can't remember.

Being in the time vortex can be a blessing for those who are time-sensitive. Missy is quite certain she would feel nauseous if time had passed as it should. All those missed years would have played havoc with her brain.

After her fifth cup of celebratory tea she pours a separate cup and pushes it across the table. She rests her elbow on the table, her chin in her hand and waits.

Moments later Florence wanders through the door and throws herself into the chair opposite.

"When am I doing the next lot?" The girl looks exhausted, hair hanging limply around her face and rather more thin than Missy last remembers. Missy smiles, nudging the other cup and saucer towards her ill companion.

"Well, Miss Wright, we are completely finished. You're now immune to every homo-sapiens affecting illness ever." Florence smiles slightly before her expression contorts and her breathing becomes fitful.

"Please don't tell me you're going to die now. That's a lot of effort and biological weapons that you will have deprived me of." The girl sneezes and the Mistress sighs exasperatedly,

"Ahh, yes, I forgot you humans get all contagious when you get ill. If you would take your cup of tea and go to your room until you have fully recovered." She makes a shooing gesture towards the exit. Florence retrieves the cup and saucer,

"Where is my room?" The Mistress shrugs carelessly,

"Sexy knows, she'll show you." After eyeing the most likely mad Time Lady sceptically for a few moments Florence leaves through the indicated exit.

"So, where am I going?" The girl directs to the ceiling. Something in her seems to already know and she follows her feet through three corridors and four flights of stairs before finding a door. It opens by itself and Florence gazes around the room in fascination as it calibrates itself to her.

"Wow. Thanks T.A.R.D.I.S." She feels something like a hand-wave in the back of her head as the room finishes adjustments. The whole thing is in varying shades of blue, from a shade almost seeming to be black to the pinpricks of bluish light, already dimming on the ceiling. A night simulation it seems, the lights a mimicry of stars.

Slowly she steps inside and the presence stands back, proud of its work.

"It's beautiful, thank you." The presence distances itself from her mind, allowing her to close the door and place her empty tea-cup and saucer on the bed-side table.


	8. Chapter 8

For a while Florence sits, exhausted physically and mentally yet somehow unable to sleep. Her things have been placed exactly as she would herself and she can't think of anything vital that she has forgotten. She picks her notebook off the bed side table and flips several pages. She reads the questions, filling in the answers in the small spaces beneath in case she ever forgets them and writes down several more to ask when she next has a chance.

Still her mind nags her- tells her there is something that she is missing.

So she showers and redresses in clean clothes from the wardrobe which seems to be stocked with no end of various outfits. Thankfully the ones she had brought with her appear rather quickly when the T.A.R.D.I.S notices that she is looking for them rather than any number of the more comfortable ones the box seems willing to supply her with.

"I'm sorry, I just need something familiar at the moment." The T.A.R.D.I.S doesn't seem to be offended and Florence smiles to herself, noting inwardly that the box's personality seems quite unlike its Mistress's. The idea of laughter bubbles in the back of her head with a tinge of secrecy.

The human thinks that she could get along quite well with the sentient, telepathic pay phone booth.

Meanwhile the Mistress is quite bored- she has been waiting for hours and the human still hasn't reappeared. Part of her thinks she should get ahead on planning visits for when her companion is travel ready, just so they doesn't end up in the middle of a war zone on the first trip, but the Mistress knows she can fly better than that.

Besides it would only distract her for a few hours at most and she knows that humans take a long while to recuperate.

The T.A.R.D.I.S laughs at something and relays Florence's thoughts to the Mistress. The Time Lady rolls her eyes, placing her cup of tea in the sink.

"Of course _you_ would think that you old box." Ignoring the resulting quip about her own age the Mistress leaves the kitchen in search of something to do.

She ends up in the library for a while, organising the books by subject, accuracy, author, century and finally colour. Her T.A.R.D.I.S has never been fond of keeping the library organised and seemed to have a habit of moving her books on world domination, poisons, diseases, knitting and her phonebook of allies (despite the fact almost every name has been crossed through) to the back of the library or sometimes completely different rooms. She didn't particularly mind the knitting as it was never something she had had the patience for as a man and even now it didn't sound very appealing or useful. The works on world domination though- the amount of times they would have been useful over the years- she can't even count how many times she could have destroyed planets for access to them.

Unfortunately before she is five books in she finds a rather boring looking manual for flying the Type 40 T.A.R.D.I.S and remembers that she should probably do a little maintenance unless she wants her own T.A.R.D.I.S to become so obsolete.

Also she needs to send the guide to the Doctor so he might eventually be able to pass the T.A.R.D.I.S test as it was set before they were loomed.

For someone who has so much experience of flying he is surprisingly incapable.

First she settles the T.A.R.D.I.S into a niche somewhere in Cardiff to recharge. The old girl needs a rest after floating around in the vortex for so long. Then makes sure that the doors are locked in case any human should try to wander in while she is working. Unlike the Doctor she is not interested in harbouring stowaways and she is _trying_ to be good.

Missy is certain that memory wiping the first dozen would not be frowned upon but knows that killing all of the rest would definitely be counted as not good.

And she _is_ trying to keep the place tidy.


	9. Chapter 9

Several days later the human seems to have recovered fully and the Mistress has finally finished all of the mundane tasks she has been putting off. Currently the Mistress is rushing around the various rooms of the T.A.R.D.I.S picking up random bits of machinery, most of it partly dismantled and looking a little scorched. Florence trails behind her, carrying the components of the Time Lady's odd shopping list.

"What are you actually doing with this… _stuff_?" The mad woman stops, spinning around on her heels. If the girl hadn't grown used to the psychotic glee the Mistress seemed to display at all times she might have flinched at the grin stretched over Missy's face. Instead Florence raises an eyebrow warily. The Mistress pouts in disappointment.

"You were much more fun when you were terrified of me- Anyway I am going to make a machine that will help you complete my list quicker. It's getting a little boring watching sleeping humans." The girl sighs, adjusting her hold on the bottom of the tower.

"I'm sorry I'm ruining your fun by being more wary of your presence than terrified by it." The Mistress waves off the apology obliviously with a word on how kind she is, "Does everything on your list have to end in me passing out?" Another object is added to the pile which Missy appraises for a second before smiling.

"I think we are done Miss Wright and don't ask such silly questions! Of course they don't _have_ to end with you passing out- they could start with it. _Your_ species is just naturally weak. By the end of my list you should be able to experience anything without most of the danger attributed to it- isn't that worth passing out two or three times? _You_ are in safe hands, Miss Wright!" Florence ignores the urge to sarcastically applaud the Mistress' speech, making do with a huff and following her back the way they came to the first large enough room for whatever feat of engineering the Mistress has decided to build.

The Time Lady turns, almost lounging inside the door frame with a lazy grin on her face.

"I think I've found the room, Miss Wright." Her voice rises from a teasing whisper to a condescending drawl as she shooes the companion off, "Go on then. Go make us some tea while Mummy fixes things up- just pop the parts down there wouldn't you darling? Go on now." With a exasperated shake of the head, Florence leaves the… things… where indicated, brushes some lingering dirt, dust and ash off of her clothes and leaves to make tea.

Thankfully the T.A.R.D.I.S decides to take her to the room rather quickly. Unfortunately that means through a swimming pool, a zen garden (complete with sand raked into an odd pattern of circles), a freezer (holding questionable meats) and a room full of hats. Finally the companion reaches the kitchen, chilled and with an interesting new fashion statement which the T.A.R.D.I.S seems to find hilarious.

Sitting beside the door is a tea trolley complete with biscuits and tea set. Florence glares at the offending object.

"You better not make me go through the freezer this time. The Mistress would not like cold tea."

Granted, the T.A.R.D.I.S does _not_ guide her through a freezer. Instead she has to pick her way through a forgotten laboratory housing the universe's largest display of test tubes (now broken glass) on a tiled floor while heat is continuously pumped in.

When she finally reaches Missy the tea is not _in fact_ cold from the delay in delivery. The Mistress smiles at her approach, looking as happy as a rather deranged child on Christmas morning, covered in ash and surrounded by the carcasses of machinery that she had had her companion lug to the room. If possible she perks up even more at the sight of tea.

"Oh, you _did_ make tea! Did you heat the whole room instead of just the teapot? You look a little… warm." Florence sits and rests her back against the cool metal of the wall. The Mistress and her T.A.R.D.I.S share a laugh.


	10. Chapter 10

"I like your hat Miss Wright!" Saying this the Time Lady springs up and swipes it off of Florence's head, placing it on her own momentarily not-so-carefully coiffured hair. She strikes a pose.

"How do I look." Her companion huffs a little.

"Like a mad-woman." The Mistress pretends to remove a tear from her eye.

"Oh, thank you darling! That means ever-so-much to me!" She drops the hat back onto Florence's head and pours herself a cup of tea. Automatically the companion removes it, swipes her hair flat again and replaces it.

"How is that machine coming along anyway?" The Mistress smiles,

"Why- I thought you would never ask! It's coming along very well- if I do say so myself- I do." Her face drops into disinterest as she sips at her tea, perched in a chair most likely supplied by the T.A.R.D.I.S when nobody was paying attention. With a indifferent manner she gestures towards the tea tray.

"Aren't you going to have some tea, Miss Wright. It's still hot." Florence arches an eyebrow at the Time Lady who remains unruffled. Her expression switches to one almost charming if it weren't for the irritation made clear by forced calm and the deliberately soft smile gracing her lips.

"I am afraid I am currently uninterested, Miss Mistress." Said Mistress's interest is momentarily piqued by the human. The T.A.R.D.I.S finds amusement in the girl's word play and the echoes of her laughter ring in Missy's head as the corners of her lips lift again. Amusedly the Time Lady matches the saccharine politeness.

"Then maybe a biscuit, Miss Wright? We absolutely cannot have you going to waste my dear."

"Oh! I could never impose on you so much!" The girl acts flustered, refusing to lose to the Mistress.

"But it would be nothing at all, Miss Wright! Please, I do insist." Upon this Florence realises that the Time Lady has defeated her. If she accepts in good grace then Missy would have managed to 'tempt' her. On the other hand if she refuses then Missy will have made her behave impolitely (never mind that it was a farce in the first place).

The Mistress has won but she maintains composure, waiting for the girl to admit defeat.

Wearily the girl stands, corrects her posture and curtsies, skirt held out delicately, head bowed in respect, hat held over her heart with her right hand.

"If it would please you, my Lady Mistress, I would be ecstatic to partake of chai and its accompaniments with you at a later date. Unfortunately at this very moment I am rather busy- the Lord Master has asked that I ensure that rooms are prepared for our guests whom will be received by yourselves presently and I must perform my duties. I thank you for the offer, my kind Lady Mistress." The girl remains in that position, facing the floor, arm outstretched until Missy speaks.

"I knew there was a reason why the Doctor almost always chose the British as companions. _You_ are invariably funny." The girl breathes a sigh of relief and settles herself against the wall again with the gentle smile that comes from winning when it is thought impossible. Missy continues.

"And of course it was rather improved by a happy coincidence-" The Mistress grins beguilingly at the tired girl who looks up in interest, "I used to be called the Master." Aside from the background hum of the T.A.R.D.I.S the room falls silent.

Florence fails to grasp the gravitas of the revelation.

"Why?"

"I used to be male- rather sexist- not an enjoyable person to be around. I'm much nicer now. Don't you think, Miss Wright?" The girl seems confused.

"Why would being male make you sexist. Not all men are sexist- that's actually-"

"Why aren't you shocked or surprised? You're meant to be afraid- or worried- or- something!" The Mistress's eyebrows knit together and she springs from her seat, feet propelled across the floor as she observes her companion from various angles,

"Why aren't you reacting!" The girl blinks uncertainly before realisation dawns on her face.

"Oh, you expected- Well, no. That doesn't shock me- many are undergoing operations to change their gender now. I wouldn't consider it myself but-"

"I didn't _undergo an operation_ you primitive ape! I regenerated. I was a man- then I died and now I'm not." The humans lips form a soft o-shape and the room falls near-silent again…

"First- I'm going to need more information on regeneration. Secondly- I still don't understand why being a man would change your personality as you clearly remember it and you don't seem to still be in childhood. Surely most of the events which affect personality have already occurred?" Disgruntled, the Mistress finishes the last of the tea, requests that Florence return the tea-trolley and suggests that she visits the library before asking her any further questions.


	11. Chapter 11

Several hours later the Mistress, the companion and the T.A.R.D.I.S are pleased with their efforts.

The Mistress has finished piecing together her monstrosity, the companion now knows a lot more about the regeneration process and the T.A.R.D.I.S has managed to irritate both of them at the same time.

"I would ask you how it works but I don't think I would understand…" Florence stares at the towering arrangement of machinery, "So- One. What will it do? Two. How will that help me complete the list? Three. What is the chance I will die or be otherwise physically or mentally impaired by usage of- that?" She gestures to the thing with an expression of mild disgust. The Mistress grins excitedly,

"No, you definitely wouldn't understand. 'That' is called a learning accelerator- or at least that's what you can call it. It accelerates your learning so you don't have to spend as much time on any of the learning based tasks on the list. And it won't kill you unless you pull it on top of yourself- which you can't do because you're only a human. Happy now, Miss Wright?" The Time Lady steps back. Florence stares at the machine warily before sighing and sitting where the mad woman indicates.

"Right then- let's get this machine running!" Missy winks at the human who rolls her eyes in exasperation. She brings two prongs from somewhere inside the machine to either side of the girl's head and smiles as apologetically as she possibly can which does nothing to ease Florence's nerves, "This _may_ pinch." The girl flinches, moving her head away.

"That doesn't sound like a good idea- are they even clean?" The Mistress squints at the prongs from a second, as if the thought hadn't occurred to her before eyeing the human wryly.

"Of course they're clean! If I wanted to kill you then you would be dead." Florence starts to respond but before she can say anything the Time Lady has stabbed the thin pieces of metal into her head. She just manages to stop herself from rubbing at her temples.

"Ow. You know you really don't-" The human trails off, eyes closing. The Mistress removes the hat, resting it in Florence's lap. She places her fingers against the girl's temples, being careful not to knock the prongs. As she works she talks.

"You would think that the old girl would keep a supply of new machinery parts… No- I have to either buy them myself or scavenge for old ones. All to make sure you stay still while you recover. Anyway- that is about you done." She pulls her hands away and Florence's eyebrows crease together, her breathing rate increasing slightly. Missy leaves the room with a last glance to her- once again- sleeping companion.

"I'm just going out to get some supplies. Be back sooon~" She sing-songs, blowing a kiss, then she is gone. She pauses briefly in the console room to grab her psychic paper before parking the T.A.R.D.I.S. somewhere secure and heading out.

Several days later the Mistress dashes through the doors, throwing her plastic bags to the floor and dancing madly about the T.A.R.D.I.S controls. Florence casually picks up the bags from where they have fallen, returning the various bits and pieces that have fallen out. When the Time Lady has collected herself and they are comfortably settled inside the vortex the girl speaks,

"Where the bloody hell have you been?!" The Mistress spins on her heels, evidently surprised by the human's presence.

"Oh, I just popped out for the essentials!" Florence arches a brow,

"You went out for- knowing you- more tea. You have returned with what looks like a pot of oil, several varying lengths and widths of pipe, a lighter, a teapot- somehow unbroken- an empty tub of ice cream, purple nail varnish- I'm not even sure what that is- and a burn mark." Missy shrugs,

"I _may_ have convinced several people that I was their commanding officer/ the head of the resistance/ the ruler of their planet." She grimaces, "They may have realised I wasn't- Anyway, you shouldn't have been up before the end of the week." The Time Lady pokes Florence in the chest. The girl doesn't move.

"It's been two." The Mistress's eyes widen comically.

"Oh."


	12. Chapter 12

Soon enough the Mistress finishes her scans of the human. Florence waits eagerly for the results.

"-And done! _You_ are now perfectly safe on all trips outside the T.A.R.D.I.S- as long as you don't do anything stupid and there are no hostile aliens." The Mistress grins and Florence can't help but smile. After a pause the Time Lady leans her head forward expectantly,

"Go on then- Ask me!" Florence laughs but obliges the excited older woman,

"Where are we going first?" The Mistress springs from her position, adjusting various levers and pressing a big red button. She leans back towards the human and winks exaggeratedly adding a stage whisper before covering her mouth as if shocked by her own behaviour.

"Don't tell anyone but that button doesn't do anything." After a few more seconds of energetic movements from Missy and the central pillar emitting the wind-like sound which had so enthralled Florence the T.A.R.D.I.S rematerialises. Casually the Mistress plucks her umbrella from its stand and pushes the doors open.

The travellers are greeted by a rather arid planet- as those that bear life go. The Time Lady opens her arms, slowly backing out of the door way.

"Welcome-" She steps aside and flourishes her hands, "-to the city of Alfraxodar on the fourth moon of the planet Sofrinba. It has a similar atmospheric composition to Earth's so you _should_ be able to breathe." Florence steps outside gingerly, as if the earth she stood on would collapse under her feet. She turns to look at the T.A.R.D.I.S which has turned into a dilapidated looking column. Behind her the Mistress is still speaking,

"Well, technically these are the ruins just outside the city Alfraxodar but that doesn't matter very much, does it Miss Wright?" The human lets out a breathless laugh, running a hand down the side of the phone booth turned pillar.

"It's changed to fit the environment." Missy snorts and waves it off.

"Of course it has. Unlike the Doctor _I_ actually take proficient care of _my_ T.A.R.D.I.S." The companion nods, surveying the new world when her fascination with the old girl dissipates.

"So, alien city, what's on the menu?" The Mistress grins wolfishly, eyes widening. Florence almost feels sorry she asked.

"There is a very nice private spa in the military compound over there and I think I deserve a break after looking after you for so long." The human rolls her eyes, ignoring the slight.

"You just said it was private." Missy hushes her,

"What have I told you about stating the obvious dear- and don't worry! Mummy will sort this aaallll out." Florence isn't _quite_ so convinced.

Thankfully the Mistress gets both of them in by convincing the guards and a good portion of the elite force that she is the Empress of Sofrinba- there to visit upon her people- and that Florence was her personal assistant. Fortunately for them both none of the people they could get to verify this were available, there was a temporary break in connection between the moon, the planet and the other seven moons orbiting the planet so the story could not be challenged by them and the Mistress managed to not wink at Florence during the duration of time spent explaining their 'situation' which would have immediately given them away.

When they are finally alone Florence asks the question burning on the tip of her tongue.

"What species are they and what capabilities do they have which are either not held by humans or differ substantially from the average human's?" Missy chuckles, amused by the human's oddly specific questions.

" They are called the Jafon. Their mental capabilities are similar to humans with more of an emphasis on snap-decision-making and a corresponding decrease in thinking ahead. As you could guess from their physicality they are particularly suited to running, however not long-distance. They can't climb." The girl nods and Missy's voice drops a little, "While we're here you are going to have to not speak around them and to pretend that you don't understand them. A lot of races see humans as an inferior species and take measures to prevent them from learning the language- we don't want them to realise who we are while we're still here. If you need to speak to me around them make sure to think that loudly enough that the T.A.R.D.I.S can hear and stop translating your speech to them." Florence nods again in understanding, a serious expression on her face as she recognises the urgency hidden behind Missy's casual façade.

So much for taking her somewhere safe it seems.


	13. Chapter 13

Hours later both Time Lady and human are thoroughly enjoying the private spa.

"Why would they have a spa in a military compound anyway?"

"Well, generally people want to either depose or protect their rulers. It's the safest place theoretically." The human arches an eyebrow, seeing the obvious flaw,

"Except anyone with sense who wants to get enough close to the ruler to kill them would realise that they are in the military compound so the most logical procedure would be to go into the military to either take them out alone or be able to get other people in more easily to hold a revolt." Missy sighs, relaxing into the mud bath. Who would have thought that a Time Lady could enjoy such primitive things.

"Exactly, Miss Wright." Her voice passes through her lips like a sigh and Florence finds herself more relaxed just by hearing the excitement replaced by calm.

For several minutes there is silence except the Mistress tapping her nails against the tiles in a four-beat rhythm, seemingly absentmindedly.

Florence is close to falling asleep and becoming submerged when the Mistress snorts, rising from the thick mud.

"You might want to get out before you drown, Miss Wright." She complies, keeping her eyes carefully averted from the Time Lady as she pulls herself from the bath.

"You humans are so prudish." The Mistress scoffs, going to rinse herself off before whatever she has decided they will do next. With a roll of her eyes the human follows, deciding not to try and argue with the madwoman.

When they are both wrapped in soft towels and Florence feels too tired to do anything she finally asks what they are going to do next.

In one movement the Mistress is standing.

"Well, I thought we could go have a look in their library- it's said to be fairly extensive." _And there's the real reason for the visit_.

"I think I might get dressed before we do that." Again, the Mistress sighs, shaking her head in derision.

"You humans and your obsession with being clothed." This time Florence does respond.

"I prefer to call it decency." Missy, as it turns out doesn't. She waits impatiently whilst the human puts her clothes back on with an expression of extreme boredom. Just as they are about to leave the room to head to the library the Mistress drops her towel in defiance, giving a wicked smile to Florence who says nothing, just rolling her eyes at the Mistress's childish behaviour.

They manage to make it to the library (which is not nearly as extensive as the rumours made out, much to the disappointment of both females) without being seen by anybody.

Not that the Mistress would have been embarrassed.

"What would the people have said if they saw their Empress was wandering around naked?" The Time Lady shrugs nonchalantly, flicking through book after book and tossing them to the floor.

"Don't know, don't care- I'm not even their Empress." Florence has to agree that this is true, albeit begrudgingly.

"And if I was they would be dead anyway. This library is awful- your Earth libraries probably have more information!" Somewhat amused that the most offensive thing about this planet, well, moon, to the Mistress is an underwhelming library Florence picks up one of the books.

A look of confusion comes over her face, intriguing the Time Lady. She peers over the girl's shoulder.

"What?" The girl's eyebrows knit together as she snaps the book shut to look at the cover.

"I can read this. I shouldn't logically be able to read an alien language and aliens shouldn't logically use a human language, let alone English." The Mistress becomes disinterested again, waving her hand as she flicks through the few remaining books on the shelves.

"The T.A.R.D.I.S is translating for you." Florence blinks at the obvious answer, realising how that really shouldn't have taken her so long to realise. After all, the Mistress had _said_ it translated for her. She didn't add constraining limits like 'speech'.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When telepathy isn't shown using reported speech it's indicated with 'these single quotation mark things and in italics'.
> 
> Just thought I'd mention that to avoid as much confusion as possible~

After having no luck in the library it immediately starts to decrease.

The Mistress had just finished redressing in the spa, much to Florence's appreciation, when two guards appeared asking that the Empress meet with one of those who had previously met her.

Not only this but, as the Mistress mentally transfers to the girl, _they already know_.

The two walk with one guard in front and one guard behind them. The Mistress seems relatively unconcerned, conversing easily with the aliens and occasionally humming.

The Time Lady turns, raising an eyebrow at Florence as she looks around discreetly for methods of escape.

' _So. How are we escaping this one Miss Wright?'_ The voice carries an undercurrent of derision in her head. Florence thinks as much as she can about the T.A.R.D.I.S not translating her speech, wishing that the mad woman had somehow made her able to communicate without speech.

"You're _testing_ me in a life or death situation." Florence is not quite sure she kept the venom out of her voice. The Mistress smirks, stopping and placing her hands on her hips. One of the guards asks them to keep walking. The human pretends she can't understand, tilting her head a fraction and looking expectantly at Missy. The Time Lady holds up a hand, insisting that they stop while she sorts out 'the human'.

"Of course I am. What better way to test the dear little human than with a little motivation?" Said human refuses to take the bait, instead sighing. Again the guards ask them to move on.

"Just tell them I need to go to the bathroom or something. I'm going to hope that whatever back-up plan you have works better than whatever I can think of." The Mistress pats her on the head. Florence _just_ manages to not roll her eyes.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience but _it_ has decided that it needs to use the loos. _Human physiology-_ what can you do?" Now Florence is certain that if they manage to get back to the T.A.R.D.I.S she might as well be signing her own death sentence.

She would say the Mistress' but she doesn't know how easy it would be to kill her.

The books suggested not at all.

With a poorly disguised expression of ire the guard at the front points to a corridor.

"Down there." And gladly the Mistress 'translates' for him,

"Off you pop, wouldn't want us to be too late would you?" As soon as Florence turns her back she finally allows herself to roll her eyes as the Time Lady's antics.

Florence is pleased that the Jafon are biologically similar to humans.

And apparently terrified of any kind of infection judging from the array of bottles with a script that translates itself as she watches.

But she doesn't need them so they can just stay there for now.

The sink underneath them is a different matter. She twists the tap, letting enough water trickle out to splash against the cold stone then turns to the large window.

From it she can see the practise grounds and further out the ruins, the view obscured by the net-like fence standing between them.

It seems too easy but she won't complain about that.

All that stands between her and the T.A.R.D.I.S is a sheet of glass, possibly some angry aliens, a fence and a whole lot of running.

Needless to say the window is not the kind that opens and Florence pulls her keys out of her pocket, hoping that against all odds that the aliens haven't discovered double-glazing or tempered glass yet. She's glad that she thought to slip them in there in case she lost them on the T.A.R.D.I.S.

Carefully she presses it against the glass in the bottom left corner. She lets herself put more pressure on the glass until finally it cracks. She does the same on the right hand side, relieved that it doesn't cause the whole thing to shatter.

That would not have been very subtle.

She hears the guards' and the Time Lady's foot steps and freezes, just about to call for the Mistress.

"You might want to wait outside- you know how primitive humans are." Florence can almost see the look of disgust on the Time Lady's face before the door opens. The Mistress smiles,

"You are lucky we're on the ground floor, Miss Wright." She seals the door using some odd kind of glowing device from her pocket. Immediately there are bangs as the guards start throwing their weight against the door. Then a fizzing sound which causes Florence to panic.

"Shit!" The Mistress grins at the pale-faced human,

"Well, we should really get a move on, Miss Wright."


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~Warning for character death~

Without a second thought Florence drives the keys into the center of the window.

Before the glass has finished falling she throws herself through the hole, barely managing to avoid smashing her face into the ground as she pushes her arms in front of her. Ignoring the lances of pain where her hands hit the dry dirt she scrambles to her feet, pounding them into the earth beneath her.

At this point she is extremely thankful that she opted to wear comfortable shoes rather than the heeled boots on the Mistress' feet.

She hears footsteps behind her and resists the urge to look, pushing herself the last couple of meters and leaping at the fencing. A shot passes under her arm as she reaches for the top of the fence and she tugs herself up, swinging both legs over and falling feet first on to the ground on the other side with a jarring in her knees which almost causes her to trip in shock.

Regardless she pushes herself the last few tens of meters. She hears the shouts of the Jafon as they open the gate, still firing at the Mistress and herself. Then the Time Lady is in front of her. She throws out her arm and the T.A.R.D.I.S is revealed to be a stone pillar to the left of Florence as the doors open wide.

She stumbles and laughs a little as a shot passes over her head, leaping to her feet seconds later. The Mistress extends a hand and Florence grabs it, letting the madwoman tug her into the T.A.R.D.I.S.

She is instantly discarded, falling harshly against the metal grill of the steps as the Time Lady slams the doors shut with a bang and races to the console, hair coming undone. Milliseconds later two shots thud into the doors then the T.A.R.D.I.S is dematerialising and they're safe.

Florence lets out an exhilarated chuckle, clenching her teeth as pain fires through her chest and head. Then come the smaller pains of stinging palms and aching legs and the huge stitch and the fact she's breathless.

"Ow." Her keys jangle against the grating as she lets go of them. The T.A.R.D.I.S is amused, the feeling spreading through her mind.

"What are you lying on the floor for Miss Wright!" The human manages to get to her feet and glares at Missy who grins cheesily.

"I'm going to fix myself up." The Mistress gives her a salute and Florence rolls her eyes, leaving for the medical bay.

When Florence returns, having carefully applied plasters across her skinned hands and catalogued the new bruises, the T.A.R.D.I.S screens are all displaying a man with angry eyebrows.

"Don't tell me that you've already regenerated." He scoffs and Florence decides he's Scottish. A brunette stands behind him looking decidedly confused.

Unsure what to say Florence finds the most obvious thing she can think of.

"Don't tell me that you're on every single screen in the T.A.R.D.I.S." The man lets out a curse under his breath which the T.A.R.D.I.S translates dutifully. Florence is sure that she would be smiling if she had a face right now. The man fiddles around with a number of controls in his own T.A.R.D.I.S and his image vanishes from all but one screen. The girl behind him frowns, a sliver of hatred tainting the expression,

"Doctor." He holds out a hand and Florence wouldn't be surprised if the girl bit it off with the exasperated look she gives the man.

"What did you do on the moon? The Jafon are waving guns at me and if-" At that precise moment the Mistress enters, hair repined and teacup in hand.

"I didn't do anything Doctor dear- they simply jumped to a conclusion and what's a girl gotta do to have a little fun around here?" She ends her speech with a hand under her chin and a malicious smile stretched across her face, posing right in front of the screen. The Time Lord's eyebrows dance as his gaze flickers to Florence again.

"You're not?" She frowns slightly, concerned that the Mistress' best friend seems to be a bit less than intelligent.

"No, I never said I was." He seems to find her response even more puzzling. The woman behind him stares at her horrified.

"Doctor." Something in the urgency of her tone catches him and he glances at her momentarily, his palm rasping across his chin. The man's gaze switches to Florence and he seems to stare for a while, eyes scanning over the girl. The Mistress rolls her eyes, stepping away from the screen and sipping her tea.

He turns to the woman behind him beseechingly.

"Clara." His voice is almost hoarse and Florence's eyebrows skyrocket. The girl-who is now called Clara-'s eyes widen. She steps forward to stand beside the Doctor.

The Mistress grins and Florence is quite aware that she is finding the situation hilarious.

"We can help you get out of there. We don't know what she's threatening you with but we can help." Clara is compelling but Florence can almost feel the Mistress' smirk as she turns her face away from the screen in the corner of Florence's eye.

"Silly puppy." Florence decides that the girl does look somewhat like a puppy with her big eyes but says nothing. Clara seems to take this as nervousness.

"I know that she's terrifying and evil and cruel but we can protect you and your family if you just-"

**~Warning for character death~**

"Don't say another word." The girl steps backwards from the screen, horror and hatred warring over her face. The Doctor stares, pleading with his eyes.

"No. Mistress, you _can't_. She's just a girl!" The cold metal presses against the side of Florence's head as the Mistress' hand clamps around her shoulder. Slowly the Time Lady drags the muzzle down the girl's face, across her shoulder. Everybody's eyes follow it as it comes to a halt at the girl's chest.

Florence shudders a little and the Mistress smiles wickedly, her lips next to Florence's ear.

"Oh, she isn't just a girl- she knew what the risks were when she stepped aboard my T.A.R.D.I.S. Didn't you Miss Wright?" Somewhat confused Florence nods.

"I _thought_ so." The Mistress claps her on the shoulder and the girl eyes the weapon with intrigue. It seems odd for her to hold something so crude.

" _See!_ Miss Wright is really quite clever you see." The Mistress steps away now, gun still raised. Florence can't decide what the appropriate reaction is so stays put, staring at the people panicking on the other side of the screen.

"And that was quite useful for me." Her voice drops low and she lets out a joyous screech as she fires.

"NO!"

"MISTRESS!"

There is a bang and Florence topples onto the grating.

The Mistress grins throwing the gun haphazardly over her shoulder, ignoring the shocked tears rolling down Clara's face and the Doctor's anger as he clenches his jaw and looks away.

"Whoops." Missy laughs and the screen shuts off, replaced by its ordinary appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well- that was fun while it lasted…   
> Just kidding!


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Florence is not dead. Back. Big surprise. Never mind.

The Mistress bends over the motionless girl with a sigh and places a hand on her forehead. Florence sits up with a gasp.

"Was scaring them really so important that you had to knock me out? What happened to being good?" The Mistress grins and the human rolls her eyes.

"What have I told you about asking silly questions? Of course it was- and you aren't dead, are you poppet?" There is a small pause for the pretence that Florence could respond before Missy continues, "Now his human pet is probably going to try and get him to stop me from killing you so you should probably step back before we dematerialise and he somehow comes crashing through those doors." Florence steps back, certain that she doesn't want to be in the way of an angry Scottish alien and his human friend. The Mistress pulls a lever and shortly afterwards there is the clunk that signifies their landing.

She pauses, head cocked to the side with a faux shocked expression on her face. After almost three seconds she relaxes, her face dropping into an unimpressed frown complete with raised eyebrows.

"Well- he's late again. Time to go stir up a primitive civilisation- he always notices that." She heads to the doors and looks back at Florence, "Aren't you coming?" The human looks at the monitor showing their location and looks at the Mistress as if she had the intellect of the common human.

"What happened to being good? And surely if you attack somewhere on Earth in my past there is a possibility that I won't exist hence creating some kind of paradox because then you might not attack that exact place and time on Earth if I wasn't on your T.A.R.D.I.S? Also- I don't want to stop existing." The Mistress sighs, bringing a hand to pinch at the bridge of her nose.

"I'm being good." She insists, "Nobody will suffer _any_ physical damage. What kind of rubbish have you humans been reading anyway- that isn't how time works at all! Besides- the fact that you haven't disappeared and I know _exactly_ what I'm going to do should clue you into that fact that _you won't not exist_. Do you follow?" The Time Lady points at Florence who nods. She barely manages to resist the urge to shout 'Sir. Yes, Sir.' With the reminder that although the Mistress would not make her stop existing- although she wasn't quite as sure as Missy was about how that could be avoided if they changed anything in the past- and had not _actually_ killed her just to upset her friend's friend (Florence also wasn't quite so sure that she agreed with the Mistress' definition of 'friend') the Mistress could kill her for real probably really easily.

Then the Mistress smiles cheerfully and pushes open the door onto a cobblestone alleyway.

"Good. Now, let's go and scare some Londoners- it is Christmas after all!" It isn't but seeing Victorian England is enough of a shock that Florence doesn't comment on it.

The smell alone turns her stomach as it wafts through the T.A.R.D.I.S doors and Florence is thankful that the Mistress had immunised her against- well- everything because it looks like that is what is held in the alleyway alone. They trudge through the filth, Time Lady snarling at every piece of dirt which threatens to touch her- which does very little to stop it- and Florence gingerly picking her way through it, eyes alternating between the ground, so she doesn't end up sprawled in muck, and the sky, lest her history lessons be proven true and she be covered in other unsavoury liquids.

They reach the other side, mostly clean. Florence is mid-way through examining the dirt on her trousers and trying to decide if she should either burn them or wash them when it hits her.

"I'm wearing trousers in Victorian London. First of all they're made of a material they don't even have yet, in a style that doesn't even exist yet and secondly it's socially unacceptable for a woman to wear men's clothes." The Mistress grins,

"Exactly, we'll be creating quite a sight even before I start bringing the lions to life." And it is this which causes Florence to fall silent for the first time since being knocked out. The Mistress arches an eyebrow.

"Why aren't you arguing? Humans love to argue- you know you're quite boring if you don't."

"They're not alive. You can't bring them to life when they have never been alive." States Florence blankly.

"Of course not," The Mistress replies, "But that's between you and I." She whispers into Florence's ear, pushing her into the square a moment later. Florence continues on awkwardly, hearing cries of horror and then a hushed silence which would seem comical if she weren't the focus of them.

Soon enough the Mistress joins her, sauntering from the alleyway, wrapping an arm around Florence and guiding her past the disgusted onlookers, past the lions and onto Nelson's column itself.

With stage theatrics she bows, pulling a top hat from seemingly nowhere and placing it on her head. She seems oblivious to everyone's stares, speaking only to Florence.

In fact, if she weren't _shouting_ about how she was going to make the lions eat everything for her 'best friend currently on planet'- which Florence is _guessing_ (hoping)the Mistress meant Florence by- then she might have been half way convinced that the Time Lady was completely unaware of the audience.

The lions slowly come to life, shaking out their manes and opening great mouths, startlingly bright in contrast to their oxidised outside, to let out a roar that echoes throughout the city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Missy sure knows how to make a spectacle.


	17. Chapter 17

Then there's the sound of something wheezing from another alleyway, covered by the screams as people run for their lives. The Mistress turns with a grin full of teeth as the angry Scottish man and the brunette- Cara?- come running from the alleyway.

"Doctor, why are the lions alive and chasing people?" The Doctor scans the square for less than a second.

"Telepathic suggestion. She's implanting her imagination into everyone's minds- ignore it." He glares at Missy then starts, extremely confused.

"She's got another human with her." Then Clara turns towards the two standing on Nelson's column, tearing her eyes from the lions. She seems to pale a little but doesn't outwardly show as much shock as Florence had expected.

"That's not a different person Doctor."

"Oh." Both eyebrows raise in bewilderment and he leans his head forwards like a particularly scrawny owl, trying to see the resemblance.

"I'll take your word for that as the resident human expert." Florence would laugh but the Time Lord seems completely serious. He sighs, clapping his hands together.

"So- what's happening here?" His hands drop to his sides, meanwhile the Mistress curtseys and the lions take their places on the pedestals. With a hop she descends to street level again, Florence follows a little less gracefully as the Time Lady walks calmly to greet the Doctor.

"Just having a little fun with Miss Wright here." She places a finger to her lips, eyes turning to the sky as she pretends to think.

"Now- I don't believe you've met before. Let me introduce you! Miss Wright, this is the Doctor, my boyfriend-" She ignores the Doctor's complaint, "and his pet human-" and Clara's complaint, "Doctor, puppy- this is Miss Florence Elizabeth Wright, my _apprentice-_ of sorts." She scrunches her face up in an odd kind of delight, clasping her hands behind her back and rocking back onto her heels as the humans stare at each other awkwardly.

Clara grabs the Doctor's arm and pulls him back into their alley. Missy and Florence look at each other.

"Control freak." The Mistress states casually. Florence nods, accepting the obvious explanation.

The Time Lady tilts her head a little.

"If you don't hurry up the police will catch all of us and I'd hate to be detained in a sub-par prison on this sub-par planet." She calls. One of the Doctor's long arms can be seen emerging from the alleyway before he is yanked back into the shadows. The Mistress sighs, shaking her head ever so slightly.

"Never will listen." She rolls her eyes, tapping her foot against the cobblestones. Florence can hear the police now along with the witnesses, voices shrill with fear. The Doctor and Clara burst from the corner seeming as composed as possible.

"Sorry about that- we seem to have got a bit muddled in your time stream!" Clara seems chipper, too eager to convince them to ignore the obvious tension in her body language. Her eyes remain on Florence the whole time.

From the glimpse of the Mistress Florence can see she seems to be holding back on laughter rather well.

"Well, no harm done but we really ought to be going- sub-par prison system, sub-par planet- you know how it is." Missy smiles, enjoying the look of exasperation on Clara's face. The Doctor steps forward.

"Actually we think it would be a good idea for all of us to have a chat." He raises his eyebrows and attempts to smile friendlily, instead it comes off as more than a little psychotic. Florence looks to the Mistress for comparison.

"After all- the universe is only so small for time travellers." Even Clara's grin falters at his awful delivery. The Mistress smiles and Florence has her confirmation of the alikeness of the Time Lord and Lady.

"Your T.A.R.D.I.S or mine?" She winks saucily, not that the Doctor notices. He mulls it over, seeming troubled. The shouts come even closer and both humans shuffle nervously, not particularly wanting to be caught at the scene of a crime even if it is in both of their respective pasts.

"Why don't we stay in this era for a little longer, find a nice tea shop- I know you like tea." The Mistress nods, accepting the offer and links her arm with the Doctor's. He seems somewhat surprised but smiles, more genuinely this time, as they walk out of the area.

Florence and Clara follow behind them hurriedly.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I owned Doctor Who it would probably be called 'The Mistress show' and involve the Mistress killing everything. Obviously I don't- you should be glad.

About half an hour later the group are situated in a tea shop deemed acceptable by the Mistress and dressed in the correct clothing for the time period- courtesy of a tailor who seemed most terrified of Missy.

"So, this is nice." Clara says awkwardly as everyone sips at their tea, "How long have you been travelling together?" She continues just as painfully. The Mistress raises an eyebrow at Florence who presumes that means that she has to answer the question.

"Quite a while- I don't remember much of it though." The other human nods, sipping at her tea.

"How about the both of you? How long have you been together?" Florence smiles innocently. The Mistress smirks as Clara splutters on her tea a little. Of course the Doctor notices none of the implications. He grimaces a little, running his palm over his mouth again.

"It's… complicated- but in short- a really long time. Are you quite alright Clara?" She nods frantically.

"Yeah, yeah- Just got something caught in my throat, that's all." She sips at her tea to disguise her embarrassment. The Mistress looks extremely comfortable in the plush seat, a grin on her face.

"Why don't you tell them about how we met?" Florence is confused by the suggestion but shrugs her agreement. Clara tilts her head interestedly.

"Well I was just wondering home from work and _she_ pops out of nowhere, compliments my fashion sense and tells me she shops in the Edwardian era. I thought she was senile. Then she stalked me for a week and came after me again. I tried to run but she pinned me to a wall and told me about Gallifrey, you and the Time Lords. I panicked even more, said something sarcastic, regretted it, she said she could travel in time. I said no to being a companion. She summoned her T.A.R.D.I.S and I was interested. She said I could learn stuff so I told her I'd be there next week. I was." The Doctor seems exasperated and Clara seems to be doubting Florence's sanity.

"Does everything with you have to involve violence?" The Doctor sighs in exasperation. Missy waves it off, unconcerned.

"She's not dead- that's a step up for me wouldn't you say?" Curiously Florence watches the Time Lord and Lady. Clara winces at the reminder of Florence's 'death' and the Doctor's gaze turns sorrowful.

"Yes, I suppose you're right but you have to be careful with humans, Mistress. They are so fragile. All it takes is one mistake-" He holds her hand gently where it rests on her knee, eyes focused on her face, trying to communicate the seriousness of the issue to his dearest enemy and most hated friend. The Mistress meets his gaze levelly, placing one of her hands over his own.

"And they die. I _know_." The words carry more weight than they have the right to. There is silence and in that moment even Clara cannot deny the deep friendship the two share.

Then- as if it had never happened- the two are apart. The humans take considerably longer to adjust to the change in atmosphere, remaining quiet while the two Gallifreyans catch up. There comes a natural lull in conversation once again and Clara smiles, considerably less awkwardly than at the beginning despite the fact her wary gaze is still fixed upon Missy as if she would suddenly start passing around live grenades.

"So have you learned very much so far?" Florence shakes her head with a sigh.

"Regrettably little. I know a lot more about Gallifreyans and the regeneration process. The Mistress thought it would do me better to learn about aliens before I learn anything about science or our planet's past. The extra time is useful though for anything I might have to learn for school. Not that I suppose I have to learn much." Clara seems shocked.

"You go to school?" He brows knit together in worry as Florence nods.

"Yeah, first year of A-levels. First exam in just under a month- didn't really expect to be abducted by a mad woman." Clara glances to the Mistress who seems engrossed in some kind of argument with the Doctor. Nervously she licks her lips.

"If you want we can help you escape. The Doctor could set you up somewhere where she wouldn't find you. If all you wanted was to learn we could teach you things- I'm a teacher after all- and the Doctor wouldn't mind." She smiles gently, "She's dangerous and we wouldn't want you to get hurt." The Mistress makes no sign that she heard although Florence is well aware that she did.

"Sure she's strong and takes things a bit too far but I don't think it's fair to act as if she might kill everyone in here in the next split-second. She's _trying_ to be good." Clara's eyes turn hard.

"Florence, _please_ , I've seen her kill so many people in cold-blood. People there to protect other people- to protect _me_ , people who just so happened to wander past. _Please Florence_ , you have to believe me!" Her voice is low, desperate. The Mistress is still talking to the Doctor, unworried about the outcome which is obvious to both Florence and herself.

"Look, I know you might think she's evil- I mean look at her, that much is clear- but she hasn't permanently harmed me in all the time I've been with her and she has had plenty of chance to." Clara raises an eyebrow, displeasure clear on her face.

"'Permanently harmed'?" Florence winces,

"Well- all harm she has inflicted upon me has been for a purpose or with my full prior consent."

"You are only seventeen!" Florence pinches the bridge of her nose, really wishing that they could leave already.

"At sixteen one can legally have children, join the army, etcetera, etcetera." Clara raises her eyebrows, huffing incredulously.

"Florence- do you really trust her that much." The girl shakes her head, snorting.

"Of course not- for a teacher you aren't very clever! She's mad, very capable of murder and extremely intelligent. I'm just aware that it would be futile and probably fatal to try and avoid her and that if she wanted me dead I wouldn't be able to do anything about it." Both Time Lord and Lady are watching them now, " And she makes a good cup of tea." Florence adds in a more conversational tone.

The Mistress cackles and Florence grins, finishing off her cup.


	19. Chapter 19

"I can't take all the credit for that dearie- you make a rather nice cuppa yourself!" Clara stares slack-jawed at the two mad-women (at least in her opinion). The Mistress rolls her eyes exasperatedly,

"Honestly! Of all the awful things I could do to Miss Wright you expect I would kill her! I am much more imaginative than that I'll have you know!" The Doctor smiles awkwardly, petting his friend's arm.

"We know you're much more brilliant than that. Why don't we take a walk- leave the humans to do human stuff." She relents with an exaggerated wink to Florence and what she thinks is a mouthed 'give-her-hell'.

"Have fun, Flowsie, I'll be back to pick you up later!" Both humans stare at the Time Lord and Lady as they wander out of the tea shop, arm in arm.

"Um." Florence blinks owlishly,

"Did she just call you _Flowsie_?" Clara watches Florence who is still unable to respond.

"Uh." Her face passes through several different expressions before settling on one reminiscent of confusion yet lacking any solid ties to reality.

"I'm guessing she hasn't called you that before." Suggests Clara slowly. Florence shakes her head.

"No. She hasn't." For several more moments the two humans try to recover from their shock and confusion. Gradually the power of thought returns to them.

"Anyway- there's something I need to tell you. I'm not supposed to but I can't just let it happen." She takes a deep breath and holds Florence's gaze.

"And whatever happens you need to stay calm." Florence manages to not roll her eyes, instead nodding her go-ahead.

Finally Clara says what both the Mistress and Florence have been waiting for all afternoon.

"In the future the Mistress kills you. Shoots you dead. If you travel with her you will die." With fury in her eyes Florence stands.

"She would never kill me." Clara stands warily, both of the angry girl in front of her and the eyes of the Victorian public. She brings her hands down in a placating gesture.

"You have to believe me- I saw it happen- the Doctor saw it happen. We have no reason to lie to you." Florence glares, sweeping the china cups off of the table with a crash.

"I will never believe you!" With this she runs, leaving broken china all over the floor. The staff aren't quick enough to stop her as she bolts. Clara follows, ducking beneath the arms of one of the staff as the shards of the tea set crunch under her shoes.

Florence buries herself in the crowd, almost managing to keep the glare fixed on her face. There is a park nearby, almost empty and she makes her way towards it, certain that the Gallifreyans would be there.

She catches sight of Missy and begins running again, almost falling at her feet in laughter. The Doctor appears extremely shocked, eyebrows almost joining his hairline as they turn. Clara races up to the three of them, staff from the tea shop apparently having abandoned the chase.

"What did you do that for!" Florence can't speak for laughing so the Mistress answers for her.

"Well it's rude to be presumptuous, don't you think?"

"What do you mean?" The woman is scowling darkly, looking to the Doctor for help. He seems just as confused as she. The Mistress merely chuckles, smirking nastily at the human.

"You see, you rather offended me when you presumed I had beaten my dear Miss Wright up. I decided to spare her the boredom of you trying to convince her that she needed saving by knocking her out. You just expected that I'd killed her." The Doctor looks decidedly unimpressed.

"So you did all of this just to upset Clara." The Time Lady grins.

"Of course, why else?" He sighs,

"Really, you know you would have a lot more friends if you didn't try to terrify everyone." Missy grins happily, entwining her arm with the Doctor's again and pulling him against her side.

"But I have you, my best enemy in the whole universe!" She presses a kiss to his nose, "And these two probably count somewhere on the pets scale." Florence bows sarcastically and Clara just glares.

"It's a pleasure, My Lady." Clara's response is much more acidic.

"You are a horrible person- you know that." The Mistress smiles cheesily, releasing the Doctor who seems horrified by the prolonged contact with another physical being.

"Didn't you already know that puppy?"


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is filler.

"So, now we've got all of that cleared up we might as well be off- Things to do, people to burn." She grins at the Doctor as she unlinks their arms, "I enjoyed our time though, Doctor dear- we must do this again!" The Mistress begins fiddling with a bulky watch on her wrist. Florence grabs hold of her at the last second, leaving an intrigued Time Lord and his angry human.

"I forgot to ask about the Jafon…" The grey-haired man sighs in frustration.

Back on the Mistress' T.A.R.D.I.S Florence is still reeling. In direct contrast the Mistress is crowing in delight.

"Oh, I love doing that! Best thing you apes ever invented- not that you've invented it yet-" Florence groans, carefully pulling herself off the floor.

"What the bloody hell was that?" The Time Lady grins, excitement still clear on her face.

"Vortex manipulator- dirty time and space travel. Invented in your future. I stole one, rather handy in a pinch and easily manipulated to run off any energy you can think of." Gradually the mad woman comes down from her 'dirty time and space travel' high and potters off to make some more tea. The T.A.R.D.I.S hums in sympathy and the sentiment of wanting to burn the vortex manipulator is echoed in the back of Florence's head.

"She would just steal another one though, wouldn't she." The T.A.R.D.I.S agrees with laughter and Florence heads off towards her room. On the small bookshelf next to the door sit Florence's textbooks gathering dust. She knows that the T.A.R.D.I.S could easily clean the dirt away but she doesn't ask it. If she did she probably wouldn't realise how little she used them.

Sighing she lifts one from its resting place and flicks to the beginning. Just because she's travelling through time and space (well, most of the time is spent sitting around in the vortex but that's just technicalities) doesn't mean she doesn't have to keep on top of her studies. Quickly becoming bored she skips to the questions at the end of the chapter, scribbling down answers that seem far too obvious and flicking to the back to check them. Satisfied, she moves on.

Several hours are spent (or would have been if they were not in the vortex) with Florence flipping through pages. She closes the book with a thud, leaving it on her bed as she runs out of the room.

After searching thirty-seven rooms she finally finds the Mistress in the library.

The Time Lady arches an eyebrow, placing her saucer down on a side table and lowering her book to her lap.

"What's got you so panicked?" The human drops herself into the arm chair opposite, bringing a palm against her forehead.

"Have you put all my exam answers in my head?" The Mistress observes the girl sceptically.

"Exam answers?" Florence rolls her eyes, gesturing wildly.

"Yes, exam answers. The answers to the questions in exams. I know them. I didn't used to- did you put them in my head?" Missy scoffs, closing the book in her hands.

"No, why would I do that?" The idea seems completely ridiculous to the Time Lady, "I only put knowledge in your head so you wouldn't have to stop me to explain every five minutes."

"But it's like cheating! No one else would have a telepathic alien friend who zaps answers into their heads." Quite astounded by the human's reasoning, the Mistress stares.

"Are there any rules saying that it is cheating?"

"No- but-" The Mistress holds up a hand.

"Then it's not. You just found a loop hole, that's called being more resourceful than the exam board which there are no rules against either. It's not like I can take the knowledge out of your head anyway. If you're that upset you could deliberately get answers wrong." Exasperated the Gallifreyan takes another sip of her tea.

"If you _do_ want the real answers I'm sure the T.A.R.D.I.S could bring them up for you. _Then_ you might possibly be closer to cheating." Florence sees the futility of reasoning with the Time Lady and gives up, especially because it won't end with the result she wants.


	21. Chapter 21

"So, what are we doing today?" Florence questions to the- as it turns out empty- console room. Stumped she scopes the room for about half a minute, waiting for the Mistress to appear from one of the corridors with a cup of tea in hand and a sarcastic quip.

"Oh," Feeling rather idiotic and hoping that the T.A.R.D.I.S hasn't recorded the whole incidence for later viewing pleasure she wanders off to the kitchen. It was a rarity after all to have a morning without the Mistress hovering over her shoulder or whisking them both away to some planet which 'needs a revolution' as the Time Lady puts it.

Florence is quite certain that the Gallifreyan's real purpose for visiting is to blow up a few buildings in the name of 'not really being bad' in the middle of a riot which may or may not bring the overthrow of a harsh dictator and was most certainly started by the mad woman herself.

But right now tea and whatever there are ingredients for that isn't toxic to humans sounds good.

The T.A.R.D.I.S proves less than extremely unhelpful in Florence's efforts to make something edible. She hears laughter in the back of her mind as- yet again- the cupboard housing dishes vanishes only to appear again on the opposite side of the room. With a sigh the human sits down with the cup of tea which even the T.A.R.D.I.S knew not to deny her.

"If you won't let me make something then why don't you?" Again the T.A.R.D.I.S laughs but this time a plate shoots out of a slot which opens up in the wall landing directly in front of the frustrated girl.

Said frustrated girl picks herself up off the floor before the tea has time to drip from the table on to her.

"Bloody hell- give me some warning!" Quickly she cleans up the spillage, pouring herself some more tea along with milk and two cubes of sugar. Florence sits on the chair and takes a sip from her tea cup before even looking at what the T.A.R.D.I.S might have deigned to cook for her.

On the dish is a steamed chocolate pudding- from the smell of it- and a scoop of what Florence hopes is vanilla ice cream.

"You know this doesn't normally count as breakfast food." Nevertheless the human breaks off a piece with her fork and stuffs it in her mouth, "But you are quite good at the whole baking thing." The T.A.R.D.I.S preens and Florence laughs begrudgingly.

"If you don't let me use the kitchen again tomorrow I will find a way to make you make this for me every morning." Florence is met with the T.A.R.D.I.S' acquiescence and sits bewildered for a second.

"Sometimes I think you might be as mad as the Mistress." The T.A.R.D.I.S huffs, "By the way where is she today?" The human eats the rest of the pudding, delighting in the soft chocolate center, and drains her tea cup, knowing that it will soon be cleaned up.

With a full stomach Florence sets off down the winding corridors, paying heed to the T.A.R.D.I.S' mental nudges in the right direction. Finally she comes to a stop before an ornate pair of doors that the human is fairly certain she hasn't seen in her previous wanderings of the T.A.R.D.I.S.

Florence runs her hands over the deep engravings of circles. Some parts of the pattern run shallower than others but the cuts are clean, clearly skilled. Florence is impressed.

"Wow, you have quite a few hidden talents, don't you?" The T.A.R.D.I.S hums, " _She_ did this- I'm surprised she had the patience." The human gently pushes the doors open. Inside the Mistress sits on a plump arm chair, delicate looking glasses perched on her nose. She doesn't seem to notice Florence.

"Are you going to come in or just stand in the door way until you die of old age?" Florence nods, stepping inside and closing the doors behind her. The Time Lady snaps the glasses closed and places them on the side table,

"Rather useful things- translate all codes in a matter of seconds when I can't be bothered. Also they help me to read, this body's eyesight is not something to write home about- not that there is currently a home to write to." The human stares at the Gallifreyan in confusion.

"Are you okay?" Blank faced, Missy looks down at herself.

"Yes- why- what's wrong with me?" She pauses for a moment to raise both eyebrows at her companion, "That isn't always wrong with me- you humans are so negative." Florence gestures vaguely towards her which draws only more confusion from the Time Lady.

"You aren't dressed up." The Mistress sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose as she lets her head flop against the back of the chair.

"Sometimes I don't dress up- get over it. I might not even be wearing clothes. As far as you know they could be holograms!" Florence sighs, earnestly hoping that the Gallifreyan is wearing real clothes.

"Sure, whatever- Where are we going today?" The Mistress sighs, waving a hand.

"I don't know- someplace on Earth- I don't quite feel like dealing with a competent prison system today. Just tell the T.A.R.D.I.S to land us somewhere and I'll join you when I've finished reading." Florence nods, leaving the Time Lady alone with her bad mood.

The T.A.R.D.I.S feels sympathetic at least and makes the path to the console room a lot less complicated than usual.

"You heard what the crazy lady said- we're going to Earth again- you must have the location bookmarked by now Old Girl." The T.A.R.D.I.S sends a shower of sparks down on Florence for her cheek who ducks beneath the black hat that she had rather taken to wearing after discovering its fire and bulletproofness.

She does wonder how much time the Mistress spent fretting about being killed before she picked up the knowledge on how to make assassination proof clothing.

As if upon cue the Time Lady emerges from one of the many corridors branching off the console room. Once again she is dressed immaculately and bearing a rather psychotic grin.

"Well, let's see where Sexy's dropped us off this time!"


	22. Chapter 22

The Mistress throws open the doors and Florence almost can't believe what she is seeing. Without hesitation she steps outside, Missy following, bad mood having disappeared completely under her dramatics,

"Here we are, twenty-first century Earth."

The pillars of stone stand proudly and the human laughs when she turns and the T.A.R.D.I.S has camouflaged itself as one of them. The Time Lady spins before leaning against the closest stone, hands pressed against the cool surface. She smiles at her companion, eyelids dropping,

"Did you know that I built this?" The human doesn't and expresses her doubt.

"Alright, maybe I didn't but they are lovely, aren't they." The Time Lady admits, rolling her eyes.

All of a sudden red dots appear on the Mistresses chest and neck, she looks down lazily and coos.

"Oh, would you look at that- someone wants to kill us again Miss. Wright. How unexpected." The girl looks down and notices the same on herself. A helicopter descends from above, delivering a blonde woman who looks decidedly angry and a little afraid beneath it.

"I thought we made it clear that we didn't want you on this planet." Florence raises an eyebrow at the Mistress who raises another in return, shrugging and mouthing a rather obvious 'I don't know'. The Time Lady swings one foot over the other and sighs,

"You know I was trying to have a nice morning on your back water planet but I might reconsider if you offend me too much." The woman stares them down stonily. With a groan the Mistress leans her head against one of the stones.

"Fine- we should probably start with what you think I did. So- what do you think I did this time?" She rolls her eyes for emphasis,

"Not think. _Know_. You are under arrest by UNIT for planned genocide." The woman directs her gaze to Florence who quite frankly doesn't have a clue what's going on.

"We're bringing you in too as a precaution." The girl nods, deeply confused and looks to Missy as she is strapped into some strange device that Florence thinks is some kind of restraint. She allows them to put her in a similar contraption, not really seeing any way out of it. Missy smiles wolfishly,

"Interesting device you're putting me into here… Works better than I would expect for something made by UNIT." Even with the Mistress restrained the dots don't disappear from their chests, "Ah, that's because it's not is it? Using alien technology again- Interesting…" Nobody comments.

"I thought you said you _didn't_ want to get caught up in some kind of mess with people who were competent?" As much as the Mistress can she shrugs.

"But Miss. Wright did you really think that would be possible for me?" The human sighs then spots the woman over Missy's shoulder prepping an injection. The Mistress' gaze stays fixed on Florence.

She sees a man over her shoulder, prepping another injection.

' _I presume they're going for me too?'_ Florence sends a mental nod, shoving the accompanying image of the woman standing behind Missy as proof.

"Be careful with her, she's human." The comment is off hand but it brings a pause as the man behind her leaves with the blonde woman.

The Mistress starts singing with their absence, an odd broken up series of notes. When they return she stops abruptly.

"Ah, good- we're getting quite bored. Not very good entertainment around here, is it? Oi! What are you doing with that?!" A rather large shadow passes over the area and Florence watches in horror as one of the stones is lifted into the air. Except she knows that it isn't really made of stone.

"Don't let them do a thing to you! You teach 'em a lesson." Suddenly the Time Lady is turned into a raging mother as the T.A.R.D.I.S dematerialises from UNIT's pincered grasp. The metallic prongs clang as they clash against each other.

The blonde woman curses and lifts her phone to her ear.

"I want people searching the ground for anything odd in a country-wide radius- the transport has escaped and can camouflage itself and disappear at will. Leave no stone unturned." She turns back to Missy who sticks her tongue out.

"You won't find her now." The woman sighs, pinching at the bridge of her nose.

"Just put her out now so she stops being so obnoxious." Florence watches as the Time Lady's pupils blow wide, whatever they pumped into her overwhelming her systems.

"Oh, that is an interesting one isn't it." The Gallifreyan goes limp and Florence watches, waiting for the mad woman to somehow escape and start prancing around. The woman pushes the Time Lady past Florence.

"Mistress?" Worriedly the girl calls out. Then she tries grasping at the Mistress' mind, sending out her desperation. The Time Lady's mind slips away from her before disappearing completely.

"Mistress!" Florence can barely help herself now, trying to struggle against the confines of her restraints. Something brushes her own neck and the human can feel herself spinning and shrinking in size.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for referring to Kate Stewart as 'ma'am' if it's wrong I honestly can't remember how UNIT personnel refer to her and my head says it sounds right.

With another prick in her neck Florence is alert. She doesn't move, remaining in her slumped position. From what she has read these kind of things take a while to wear off even when the awakening if artificially induced.

She supposes she has the Mistress to thank for that. Both remembering the knowledge and being fully aware more quickly. It probably _is_ the Time Lady's fault anyway.

With that thought she reaches out for the Gallifreyan's mind, relieved when she feels it respond with a dry ; _'oh, so you're awake now. Took them long enough.'_ Florence manages to not smile.

' _Yes, I thought it would be best if I wake up slowly because they might let something slip.'_ The Mistress gives her the equivalence of a mental pat on the head.

' _Good idea, the blonde one won't stop going on at me about some kind of invasion and dead people. All quite boring- let me know if you hear anything.'_ The human waits for several more minutes but the other people who she presumes are still in the room stay silent. Even as she curses it she has to commend their training- even now it was still surprising to her the amount of people or aliens who would presume you were asleep if not given any indication otherwise.

Bored, she shifts her head, letting out a small moan as the muscles protest. Beyond her there is movement.

"She's waking up. How would you like us to proceed?" The response isn't clear enough for Florence to hear.

"Yes ma'am. Of course." Florence lifts her head, wincing at the ache and opening her eyes a little to the sight of an empty wall.

"Would you please state your name and species for the record." A man moves into her field of vision, face carefully blank.

"Huh, what? What's happening?"

"You are being kept under surveillance as an associate with a dangerous entity. Questioning will now be undertaken. Would you please state your name and species for the record." Florence nods as much as she can in the restraints.

"Uh, okay. Yes. My name is Florence Elizabeth Wright. I'm human." The man doesn't take note of this. Florence presumes they're recording.

"Could you please explain your relationship with the entity known as the Mistress." Florence can hear the Mistress in her mind,

' _Tell them something ridiculous- your interrogation is getting a bit boring and I'd like to see the blonde one's reaction.'_ The human disguises the pause as confusion. Patiently the man stands, hands by his sides and feet planted firmly on the white tiles.

"The Mistress? Do you mean my cat? She died several years ago- I wouldn't exactly have called her dangerous… More," For a few seconds Florence considers how to finish her sentence, "Playful?" The soldier manages to keep a straight face although his exasperation is clear.

"We believe you to associate with the _alien_ entity known as the Mistress or the Master. We would like to know the nature of this relationship."

" _Alien?_ Like little green men?" Something clicks and Florence can hear the Time Lady's laughter in the background.

"We know you and the Time Lady known as the Mistress are associated. She has admitted to as much. Can you please just tell us the nature of your relationship?" The blonde woman's voice comes from a speaker in the ceiling. Florence turns her gaze to it.

"Are you God?" The Mistress starts laughing harder.

"No. Please just answer the question Miss. Wright." The human smiles brightly, "Or we will be forced to restrain you until your association with the Mistress can be disproved." Florence frowns then decides on a plausible sounding answer.

"She got bored so hired me to make her tea. It's not so much a relationship as a job of sorts."

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart sighs, wishing that she could be dealing with Slitheen again rather than an insane mass-murdering alien who just so happened to be friends with the planet's guardian of sorts and her human associate.


	24. Chapter 24

In separate cells the Mistress and Florence wait. An armed guard stands on each side of the human and the Mistress is surrounded by twelve for precautionary measures. The soldiers in Florence's room are half tempted to start playing some sort of card game- the girl in unarmed, human and asleep. Meanwhile in the Mistress' room the men and women are trying to decide if they could just kill her and be done with the Time Lady's singing.

Really the two are conspiring in their heads but the soldiers don't need to know that _quite_ yet.

' _So if you just get them to look at you and do that-'_ Florence cuts the Mistress off mid-though.

' _-I get out and free you before we make a run for it.'_ Although the Gallifreyan fakes irritation the human can tell she is pleased by the advances she has made.

"Excuse me." Florence repeats herself, surprised by the whisper that her voice is after such a long time. The man turns to look at her in shock and the mere fraction of a second is all she needs.

"Excuse me but I believe you will do as I say." In some strange way she can feel his mind warp itself to her wishes- she is careful not to touch his memories. The woman on her other side still does not look.

"Get me out of this thing." The man obliges, going behind her to begin the process of removing her from the restraints. His fellow turns now in shock,

"What are you doing!" And Florence takes control of her too.

"Please aid him in unstrapping me." She almost asks their names but decides against it, not wanting to prolong her entrapment. The alarm begins blaring and the human looks around in panic as she collapses to the floor, feet giving way beneath her.

"Shit! Carry me and give me the gun. You- at the ready." The woman picks her up and Florence adjusts her grip on the gun, familiarising herself with it.

"Not good!" The Mistress' presence disappears from the back of Florence's mind.

What should she do? They probably have orders to kill.

She has two guns but they have an entire military compound.

The door opens.

She stares into their faces, catching as many of their eyes as she can.

"Do what I say!" The shout is desperate but those in front of the door surrender to her will. Her head aches but she continues- she has to at least find the T.A.R.D.I.S and get out of here.

"Everybody must be made to look at me!" Her voice rings clearly despite the shouts of men and women stuck behind those in her command. They turn on their brethren, dragging them to face her. She almost brings herself to feel sorry for them but the guns in their hands and the knowledge that they won't be hurt intentionally stops the empathy before it sticks.

Also it will be good for the sanity of the whole place if she took the Mistress from them- they weren't too fond of being in such close quarters with her.

It takes about ten minutes before she has all of them under her control- by this time the building has been sealed and her head feels like it might implode. She is glad she has the woman holding her up because she doesn't think she could walk like this, let alone run.

Groggily Florence looks to her forces.

"Find the Mistress. Search every room and mark those you can't get into so we can come back to them later. If you find a way that leads out mark that too." The intercom clicks on again and the blonde woman's voice comes through the speakers over the sounds of heavy footsteps.

"Miss Wright we have put the building on lockdown. Nobody will be escaping today, least of all the Mistress. If you do not desist we will go down a route which I am not proud of to stop you." Florence pauses to think this through.

"You had already planned to kill me when you sent all those soldiers at me- why should I believe you would let me live now? Anyway if the building is on lockdown you can't get in either. I can do what I want. 'The inmates have taken over the asylum' etc. Besides we have a T.A.R.D.I.S." The voice scoffs.

"There is nothing you could want in that building. It is a containment facility separate from the one with weapons and the whole place is T.A.R.D.I.S proof as a precaution against Time Lords. We are trying to contain entities dangerous to the human race- please don't let yourself become the first human to stay there-" Her voice softens at the end but Florence ignores it with a sigh.

"I'm not really human anymore though, am I? I am centuries ahead in scientific knowledge- if not light-years. I am immune to every disease ever. My body is millions of lifetimes longer than it appears and I don't remember a single one. I can talk to people _with my mind-_ hell- I can bend them to my will. I am friends with a mass-murdering sociopath, psychopath alien with more than nine lives and her sentient space ship. If you prick me I still bleed and if you tickle me I still laugh but I _can't_ be just a human again."

"We could hire you- find you a place among us- the Mistress is-" Florence interrupts the interruption.

"It doesn't matter what the Mistress is or isn't. I can't be among you anymore- I know so much- I might not be immortal but I can't just watch things happen. I can take the Mistress away from you, distract her from this planet. She hasn't directly killed anyone in the years I have travelled with her." The voice sighs, obviously hearing the resolution in the girl's voice.

"In any other circumstances I would have been delighted to have met you Florence. You are more human than you think- it is more than just a species. I am sorry but we will have to detain you if you will not surrender." The voice is firm and Florence laughs sarcastically,

"Well then- in that case I'll lie on the floor with my hands behind my back and let you escort me to my holding cell."


	25. Chapter 25

The guards have finally located the room which the Mistress should be in and four exits which Florence is hoping haven't been shut down since.

Now all that stands between them and freedom is the locked door between Florence and the Mistress. The only way into the room is through that door. Unfortunately there is no key hole, no key code entry pad and no way to pry it open.

There is however a biometric scanning pad which according to one of the soldiers will unlock the door if presented with the correct hand. The hand that just so happens to belong to the woman outside of the facility. Damn.

With a sigh Florence presses her forehead against the wall.

"PRINT UNRECOGNISED. ACCESS DENIED." Despite the situation Florence laughs. The voice of the woman whose hand she needs comes from one of the speakers in the wall.

"You have no way to get into that room and no way to get out of the building. Will you just surrender?" Florence won't but that woman can keep hoping.

Absentmindedly the human shuffles through the minds of those under her power, wishing that a solution would hurry up and present itself.

"You." She turns to one of the people in the front row,"Retrieve the things which were taken from the Mistress and I." She nods and immediately leaves for, most likely, the processing room for alien goods. Footsteps echo along the corridor.

"And make it fast!" Florence adds. The steps speed into a run. For several minutes the group wait outside the door. The sound of people breathing is almost a cacophony against the silence of the building. Eventually the soldier returns. With a satisfied grin the girl tucks her belongings back into her pockets, securing the Mistress's in one inside her coat so they are harder to access- she doubts even the Mistress herself knows everything they do and she would prefer not to risk it.

Aside from one she is quite familiar with.

The end of the pen lights up, emitting an odd buzzing noise.

"Our locks don't open to sonic devices either." Florence aims the pen nib at the panel.

"That's no trouble- it's not sonic." A red light glows at the tip of the pen and the green light of the panel hums as if a hand had been placed over it.

"PRINT UNRECOGNISED. ACCESS-" The computerised voice cuts out and the door clicks open.

Florence waits for one moment in case there are guards in front of the door. Her guards wait outside as she pushes the door completely open. It doesn't slide shut behind her.

As quietly as she can the human tip toes into the room, glancing around the corner nervously. A shot passes by her head and she falls back against the wall, shaking. Something begins running so Florence runs too, back into the corridor, back into the safety of her crowd.

"Restrain them!" Her soldiers obey, managing to keep hold of their former comrades without anyone being seriously injured.

Still shuddering in fright Florence makes her way to the door again. One of the men who was in the room looks up at her. Florence takes control of him too and her crowd relinquish him.

Before she bends him to her will she can feel his surprise at her appearance and pity for the fear clear in her posturing. He hadn't believed the woman when she said that their target was a girl. In his mind her eyes are wide, her face white as she flees. Putting it aside Florence questions him.

"Who else is in that room?"

"Kate and the Mistress." Florence nods.

"Kate?"

"Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. Head of UNIT."

"Weapons?" He shakes his head.

"None." With one final nod Florence takes a deep breath and wipes clammy hands on her skirt. The human leaves the soldiers outside again and steps through the door, not bothering to be quiet this time.

The Mistress lies limply in her restraints, head propped up by her shoulder. Beside her stands the blonde woman, gun in hand, safety off. If the girl is completely honest she kind of expected it.

"I will not allow you any further." Florence recognises the voice from the intercom. Her gaze flickers to the Mistress worriedly.

"The Time Lord is fine." With a nod Florence looks the other human in the eyes.

"You will obey me."


	26. Chapter 26

Kate smiles.

"You will _obey me_." Florence repeats, looking into the blonde woman's eyes.

Again the woman smiles.

"Unfortunately for you my father made sure that I wasn't susceptible to mind control. Thank you for pointing out a hole in the training regimen though- we'll have to get on that in case you manage to escape again." Florence stares at the other human in horror.

"I could call them in- they could restrain you."

" _Could_ \- you won't really do it though will you?" The girl opens her mouth to shout for the soldiers only to be interrupted by Kate.

" _And_ I _would_ stop you before they could do anything- which would release them from your control." Desperately Florence looks to the Mistress, hoping that she would wake up soon enough to get them both out. The gun stays fixed on the girl as she thinks.

With everyone in the building -aside from the Mistress and the woman holding a gun on her- under her command she presumes that she has as much time as she wants to think. The woman didn't seem to be inclined to shoot her anyway otherwise she would be dead already.

Florence thinks about many things, filtering memories of the various escapes she has had to make, with or without the Time Lady, through her mind. There had been quite a few instances really so at least one should be useful.

"Are you going to surrender yet, Miss Wright?" Florence smiles now.

"No." The older woman scoffs incredulously.

"What more can you do? You can't get past me and you can't get out of the building." With a sigh the girl lets herself drop to the floor, stretching her legs out against the cool tiles.

"That's true for now but you can't get close enough to me to administer whatever you used to knock me out without there being a chance that I could shoot you." Florence puts her hand in her pocket, retrieving a strange device. Lazily she turns it and takes the safety off, "- that makes us even." The woman seems somewhat impressed.

"Let's be honest- neither of us wants to shoot the other. That means that all I have to do is wait. Neither of us can escape and neither of us can move without risking ourselves. We are trapped in a stalemate which can only last as long as we can." Kate nods in agreement.

"Yes. We are. But what makes you so sure that you'll last longer than me? You might not want to forget that I am the head of U.N.I.T for a reason and it isn't just being good at paperwork." Florence smiles, placing the Mistress' weapon beside her to count off points on her fingers.

"One. I am younger than you- technically- so therefore am probably more able to stay awake for long periods of time. Two. I've travelled with the Mistress which, as you could imagine, means that I have practise in being alert for days on end. And three- just a feeling." The head of U.N.I.T is sitting too by this point, her gun pointed lazily at the girl. She sighs irritably as she lowers her hand to the floor.

"If you gave us a computer and a sofa this could be a girls' night in." The woman scoffs. Florence laughs as they both settle in for the long wait.

Hours later Florence and Kate are extremely bored and extremely annoyed respectively.

"Do you think we could call it a truce, praise both of our endurances and then go along our different paths never to meet again? You wouldn't have to deal with the Mistress then." For the twenty-seventh time Kate denies the girl's request.

Once again Florence begins to hum some odd tune which seems designed to irritate.

"If you keep humming I'm going to start doubting your humanity."


	27. Chapter 27

The older woman finally droops to the floor. Florence watches her curiously. As quietly as she can she picks up the Mistress' device and stands up.

The girl tip toes her way past Kate, resisting the urge to nudge her with her foot to check is she's actually asleep. She does however scoop the woman's gun up, slipping it into her pocket and slamming herself against the wall at a perceived movement.

Her mouth runs dry as she inches her way around to the Mistress.

The girl's heart beats fast as she stares at the restraints. There is no way she could take them off herself. Gently she takes the handles on the top of the metal frame and tries to shift it forwards. The weight of the Time Lady in them makes it almost impossible.

She edges past the woman on the floor again, waking up some of her guards.

"I want four of you to keep watch over Kate and restrain her if she awakens and two more of you to get the Mistress out of that thing." Six soldiers nod, following her back into the room.

It takes a few minutes but they manage to get the Mistress out of her restraints and laying on the floor a fair distance from the head of U.N.I.T.

Florence dismisses all of the soldiers again, her gaze stuck firmly on the blonde woman slumped on the floor. The Time Lady lies equally incapacitated behind the girl.

Florence mentally calls out for the T.A.R.D.I.S, feeling it respond quickly with concern for the Mistress.

' _I need you to see if you can get in. They said the place is T.A.R.D.I.S. proofed but if there's any chance you can get to us…"_ A soft noise acknowledges her call and the white walls of the prison begin to fade away.

"I knew you could do it Old Girl." A small shower of sparks rain down on Florence who smiles softly, glad she had picked up the hat again.

Something thuds into the T.A.R.D.I.S door and the sound of shattered glass echoes.

"Let's leave quickly!" The T.A.R.D.I.S dematerialises before any more shots can be fired.

"Are you okay?" When that question is ignored the girl nods in understanding, "Do you know how to wake the Mistress up?" The screen changes, flickering through lists of something or other before stopping. A draw emerges from the bottom of the console.

"This will work?" The question is met with the mental equivalence of a nod and Florence picks up the needle worriedly. She knew all the theory but surely this could be dangerous. The phone booth soothes her mind, directing her to inject whatever the hell was in the syringe into the Time Lady's neck.

The tip does not easily pass through the skin and the human curses the Time Lord's superior physiology as she presses harder. Eventually the T.A.R.D.I.S instructs her to empty the needle and Florence is relieved when the Mistress' eyes open a fraction of a second after the metal is removed from her neck.

She draws in a gasp of air and focuses on her companion's face.

"That was interesting." She sits up so quickly that the human has to jerk herself backwards to avoid injury. The Gallifreyan's gaze snaps to the console and she smiles fondly.

"Not bad Miss. Wright. Your showdown needs a bit of work but your exit was suitably dramatic." The human rolls her eyes.

"I'm sorry that I didn't want to kill someone who would probably have pulled the trigger before I could pick up the gun- self preservation does come above showmanship." The Mistress pouts disappointedly.

-Meanwhile-

"But how did they escape? I thought this place was T.A.R.D.I.S proof?!" Kate sighs.

"As it turns out the Mistress has a different model of T.A.R.D.I.S." The other woman groans in frustration, bringing her hands to her temples.

"So now we need _her_ T.A.R.D.I.S. Why does alien technology have to be so complicated?" Kate almost moves to pat the woman's back. Instead she settles for a sympathetic frown as the woman slumps over her desk.

"If it's any consolation we're having everyone retrained- you included." An irritated moan comes from beneath the woman's arms.


	28. Chapter 28

Florence pops the hat on her head with a grin. It had become her favourite thing to wear and the odd looks she got in almost every time zone and planet were well worth the protection it afforded.

They were going to Earth today- and not to visit her family as much as she enjoyed that.

It had been a long time since she had been on the planet just as tourist and the Mistress had acquiesced rather easily. Florence presumed that it was as much for the T.A.R.D.I.S to refuel and to get involved in a few bar fights without Florence intervening (because they normally involved fire or the annihilation of a small village) as it was for Florence's benefit.

So they settled down in Cardiff and went their separate ways.

Apart from the T.A.R.D.I.S which had, as soon as they had got out, taken on the appearance of a pebble. Apparently she wasn't keen of U.N.I.T catching sight of her.

Florence didn't blame her.

"Back here before five please, Miss. Wright. We can't let you get caught up in the reproductive frenzy the rest of your species seem to enjoy so much." Florence rolls her eyes thinking that even the Mistress doing that would be more likely than her.

True to form the hat did garner her a lot of curious looks, quite a few glares for the oddity and the occasional jealous one.

She kept an eye on any statues she passed, preferring not to be shunted back in time today.

The human walked around aimlessly, window shopping despite the fact that she knew she had everything she could ever want on the T.A.R.D.I.S and enjoying her time to be around the things she had grown up with (although she supposed this phrase was redundant with the fact that she had lived many more years on the T.A.R.D.I.S than encompassed the whole of her youth on this planet).

The presence of normal humans and the constant babble of chatter is rather more relaxing when they aren't about to riot and she doesn't have to run through them from whatever alien was hunting them down this week.

So Florence sits herself on a park bench and reacclimatises to Earth.

The gravity is just right and the composition of the air makes breathing easy- any new version of Earth just doesn't compare to the original.

A flock of pigeons scatter as some kid runs through them, squawking in what she _thinks_ is an impression of them. She forgot how stupid children were.

Someone taps her on the shoulder. Florence springs from the bench ready to swing a punch, pull out the gun and take control of their mind.

 _They_ turns out to be a small girl.

Florence doesn't relax- for all she knows the thing could be a Zygon or an oddly realistic Auton or any number of deadly alien that can camouflage as or possess humans.

Nearby someone who looks to be the alien's commanding officer places a hand against its head, still pushing her child carrying device and seemingly annoyed.

_Pushchair._

She really _has_ been away for a long time.

"Your _mother_ is over there. You should return to her and remember that speaking to strangers is not wise." Florence folds her arms, hoping that the kid or alien gets the idea. She doesn't.

"Can I wear your hat?" The brat points at her hat and instantly tips, not that she knows, Florence's alien radar. She straightens, stepping backwards.

"No. I suggest you return to your commanding officer." The girl is confused.

"What?"

"Return to your commanding officer." The child stares up at her.

"You're weird." Florence begins to get an inkling that this might be a real human child. Hand in her pocket just in case she marches the human up to its mother.

"It would do your girl a favour to teach her not to talk to people she doesn't know. _Especially_ ones who don't look normal- they probably aren't." The woman blushes, placing a possessive hand over her daughter's shoulder and calling back the boy who had ran through the pigeons.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over her." The three quickly leave- the boy sitting in the child carrying- _pushchair_ \- and the mother's lips a grim line.


	29. Chapter 29

The Mistress grins nastily as she makes her way back to her T.A.R.D.I.S.

No matter how old she got she was sure she would never tire of beating up primitive species. This form was especially fun as they really underestimated her.

She freezes, her amusement promptly sinking into the depths of the deepest ocean trench on Feebar nine only for the oceans to freeze to below absolute zero before the planet implodes and gets caught in the gravity of a star going supernova, the result of which then gets swallowed up in a black hole and contorted into a single note of horror.

The square is deathly quiet. The bodies of numerous humans lie around the creatures and the Mistress knows there is absolutely no chance that any are alive.

And her darling T.A.R.D.I.S sits waiting below them, pretending to be a real stone.

Suddenly one of the creatures drives over her, crashing onto its side. The Mistress has to stifle her cackling as her T.A.R.D.I.S takes the mere moment of distraction to dematerialise.

A blue light leaves a scorch mark where she used to be.

"I HAVE BEEN COM-PROM-ISED!" The metallic screech is followed by shrieks of 'exterminate' blackening the sides of buildings, knocking over a lamp post and causing four birds to promptly crash to the ground, one managing to crack the Dalek's eye.

It's so improbable that the Mistress can't stop the silent laughter running through her.

Thinking they are under attack the other one begins firing at everything too.

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" Over the sounds of their weapons only the Mistress can hear her T.A.R.D.I.S rematerialise behind her.

Several humans look out of windows, screaming in fear, only to get caught by a blue beam and fall back dead.

One falls out the window and crashes to the pavement.

This time the Mistress can't stop the shriek of laughter that comes from her mouth.

The T.A.R.D.I.S disapproves, that much is clear.

With an amused sigh the Mistress stops laughing, retreating inside her T.A.R.D.I.S to find something to neutralise them. She's quite excited to have a chance to kill a couple Daleks- even her dear Doctor didn't complain about it and he _always_ complains when she kills things.

Florence hums calmly, watching the sky slowly dim. It's funny how much more you notice about Earth when you stay away from it.

Someone glares at her irritatedly and Florence has the feeling that it isn't about her hat.

Suddenly something starts screeching and a bird plummets from the sky, landing right at her feet.

With a muffled cry she jumps back, shooting at the thing just to make sure it's dead.

The corpse vanishes, leaving the faint smell of burning meat and acrid smoke spiralling up into the sky.

Without hesitation Florence runs as quietly as she can to the square, hiding herself behind a building and peering around the corner.

It's a massacre.

Too many bodies for the girl to count lie dead on the floor. Florence doesn't doubt their deaths when there is not even the fluttering of eyelids or a faint, possible rising of someone's chest.

Her gaze travels to the two creatures standing in the middle of the carnage.

Well, she says standing. Really one has fallen over and has a bird's beak stuck in what she presumes is the visual input and gun. Its plunger and whisk swivel around helplessly as it tries to somehow get itself up. If the situation was less dangerous Florence probably would have laughed. The other is firing at random, striking down people who scream at the view from their windows.

Florence holds out her weapon, firing at the creature and flattening herself against the wall.

The alien's shouts stop.

"HOSTILE APPROACH DE-TEC-TED! SHOW YOUR-SELF! YOU WILL BE EX-TER-MIN-ATED! EX-TER-MIN-ATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" Blue bolts of light flash past Florence, shattering the glass of a shop front.

Florence runs, ducking into an alleyway and concealing herself behind a bin, heart shuddering in her chest.

Something explodes and the shock wave knocks the girl forwards.

Fighting off her dizziness Florence tries to regain control of her limbs.

"Hah! Not so tough are you now you hunk of scrap metal!" The shock of the Mistress' crow startles Florence into movement. With a chocked off sound of disbelief she pulls herself up, dusting off her clothes and beginning to catalogue her new collection of bruises.


	30. Chapter 30

Florence sighs, resting her back against the wall and steadying herself with her palms.

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" A streak of blue light flashes past her. Her gaze snaps to the creature as it speaks, horror clawing its way through her throat.

"YOU WILL STOP THE TIME LORD! OBEY! OBEY!" The single blue eye flashes in time with its speech. Florence just stares at it.

"Come on out you hunk of junk! You heap of nuts and bolts! I've got a little surprise for you- I'm sure you'll like it." Florence can picture everything in that moment; the arrogant tilt of her head which lets shadow cascade over everything but one eerily blue eye, the malevolent smirk and curling lip which show her distaste and those eyes, lit up in mirth and madness.

Again the thing speaks.

"YOU WILL STOP THE TIME LORD! OBEY OR YOU WILL BE EX-TER-MIN-ATED!" So Florence stands, her chest feeling hollow as the support of her wall leaves her. The creature positions itself behind her, the silent threat clearer than bells.

"WALK!" She can hear the Mistress coming closer, still taunting the alien.

' _It's found me.'_ It doesn't take many words and the Time Lady falls silent, footsteps stilling. The terror climbs back to forefront of her mind and it's a wonder she stays on her feet.

' _Where are you?'_ It isn't so much a question as a demand. Florence can feel the clipped tones and something between orange and yellow seep into her thoughts which does nothing to help calm her.

She keeps walking.

' _Almost back at the T.A.R.D.I.S.'_ A violent outburst of something the Mistress had told her was her first language comes from some point behind Florence, _'What do I do?'_ She half expects the Mistress to be laughing hysterically by now.

' _You can hope.'_ Then the Gallireyan's mind is sealed, nothing making its way out. The steps pick up, running towards them as Florence stops upon command.

"HALT!"

It's at this point that Florence truly realises that she will die. She almost asks the Mistress but she finds that she doesn't want to know.

Her hands itch to shoot this creature. At this range she could easily destroy it.

' _It's faster than you.'_ The Mistress' voice rings in her head.

It feels like she waits eons, standing in the silence. As she breaks into sobs she thinks about how long it's been since she last cried.

The thing remains unmoved.

"Florence!" The human's gaze snaps to the purple figure running towards her.

"HALT OR SHE WILL BE EX-TER-MIN-ATED!" The Mistress almost falls backwards in her hurry to obey, what looks like a small rocket launcher dangling from her hand. There is a moment of silence as the two aliens stare at Florence, both unwilling to let themselves be in the line of fire.

"What do you want?" The Mistress spits the words, slightly paler than usual and lips pulled into a thin, red line. Again Florence knows this is a demand rather than a question.

The woman's eyes are slightly red rimmed.

"YOU WILL CEASE RE-SIS-TANCE! YOU WILL HELP THE DALEKS!" There is even more silence and Florence is feeling increasingly ill. The Time Lady taps her lip, contemplating the creature's offer.

"Now here's my counter offer. You let me take my companion and leave. In return I will not pull every single member of your despicable species apart atom by atom and use anything useful I find in your pathetic little bodies to help some stupid little insignificant planet survive." The word 'immediately' is tagged on mentally. The Mistress' face splits into pure hatred and disgust but she does not move one steps even as the venom pours from her mouth.

"Mistress…" Florence meets her gaze and in it is enough despair and loathing to massacre whole star systems.

"REQUEST DENIED! YOU WILL HELP THE DALEKS OR THE HU-MAN WILL BE EX-TER-MIN-ATED!" The Mistress' jaw is set and she gently pulls the rocket launcher to her shoulder. Fury finds a home in her eyes as she speaks a single word into Florence's mind.

" _Duck."_ The girl flinches and lets herself drop out of the way.

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry.

The Dalek explodes, shrapnel raining down over the square where they stand.

There is silence.

"Florence?" The Mistress drops her weapon, running to the girl.

She stands, just beyond the human's reach, staring at the blood which oozes lazily from the myriad of cuts all over her body.

"No." Her voice is hollow as she scoops her into her arms, feeling the warmth exuded from her.

"No. No- this isn't. No!" There is no sarcasm, no wit, no intelligence. There is no laughing, no smiles, no speech. There is no breath, no heartbeat, no mind reaching for hers.

There is no Florence Elizabeth Wright.

And that burns colder than she had ever expected.


	32. Chapter 32

There is a room with white walls. It has a desk in it. On the desk are a potted plant and a mug holding pencils. On the other side of the desk sits a chair- wooden.

An office.

The scenery shifts.

Columns, plants trailing the walls. A table, empty. Tablecloth, white, embroidered. Tea pot, china. Sugar bowl, china. Purple.

Florence looks up.

No purple.

A humanoid in a business suit smiles awkwardly. On reflex Florence smiles back.

"You wouldn't happen to know where this is would you?" She thinks for a moment, debating whether it would be a good idea to make people aware she's linked to the Mistress so soon. Probably not. The man winces slightly, shuffling in his own chair.

"Oh, the boss did say that you would be a troubling case. I'm Seb. I can't exactly put this gently but…" He pauses, "You're dead." Florence shifts, stares into his eyes, gaze snapped into his.

"I'm sorry- I don't think I heard you properly." Seb's face turns even more grim.

"I'm afraid you have deceased." Florence sighs, straightening slightly and placing a palm on the table, fingers spread. She leans over the tea set towards the grimacing man.

Florence sighs.

"Well. You see I have a friend- wears old fashioned Earth clothing, slightly insane and murderous- she happens to be quite attached to my life so…" The man seems bewildered rather than intimidated.

"I see- the boss didn't tell me you were acquainted- but that doesn't change the fact you are dead." With an irritated huff Florence reaches into her inside coat pocket.

"Now I would really appreciate it if you would stop messing around. I have had a rather stressful day and I don't think you would like to face the consequences." The human's gaze snaps to one of the archways. Heeled boots click against the floor.

"Seb. Leave us." The man flickers out. The Mistress' face betrays no emotion.

"Mistress." The Time Lady sits in the same seat the man did. She pinches at the top of her nose, breathing out slowly. Florence watches confusedly.

"Would you like some tea. I presume that might help." The human pours out the tea, ignoring the Time Lady's lack of response.

"Florence Elizabeth Wright," She finally begins. Florence is somewhat worried by the formality but pushes a tiny china plate over to the Mistress, "You're dead." The Mistress is wearing her hat, the same one that she has on right now.

"No, I'm not." The Mistress glares at the tea cup.

"You are dead. Can't you remember what happened?" Duck. EX-TER-MIN-ATE. Blue light. Pain. Black.

"Yes, I passed out. The hat must have fallen from my head." The Time Lady sighs yet it doesn't hold the normal amount of irritation.

"No. You are dead." Florence goes to deny it. How could she have died so easily anyway?

"No!" The Mistress sweeps the china to the floor. The pieces shatter leaving eerie, bone like shards amongst the pale liquid. She stands, glaring at the tea set as if it were responsible for the whole ordeal.

"How many times do I have to tell you! You! Are! Dead!" The Gallifreyan's fists are clenched as she almost screams at the human. Florence stares at her horrified.

"You died and it was all my fault! If I hadn't- You're dead. And I've waited so long and not long enough to see you again." Her voice is heavy with grief and Florence can do nothing but watch as a slow tear tracks down the Mistress' cheek. The Time Lady begins to collapse, folding inwards on herself.

"And I never meant to get attached to you- I knew that it always happened when _He_ got attached- but I did and now you're dead and I never meant for that to happen either. I spent so much time just so I wouldn't have to watch you die. I counted on you getting bored, leaving for some other smelly little human, disappearing into who-knows-where in the T.A.R.D.I.S." She is quiet for a moment, hollow voice ringing in this hall of broken china. By now she has sunk down to the floor, skirts becoming soaked by tea and torn by shards of tea set. Pale blue eyes seek out Florence.

"And even though you're here now you're really dead. You know I killed them all. Every single Dalek I could find in all of space and history. But you're still dead and it's all my fault."

Broken.

It's the only world Florence can think of to define the Mistress now.


	33. Chapter 33

"You know I even created this whole place just to see you again. The human idea of the afterlife. All of it is because of me. The Doctor will be impressed by this show of heart by the time he figures out why." She falls silent, lips pressed together. For a second Florence wavers.

The girl who has lived eons stands and places a hand on the Time Lady's shoulder. Carefully she kneels to the floor too, brushing the broken china out of the way.

The human holds the Gallifreyan close, pulls her against her chest.

"I'm sorry Mistress. I'm sorry." The Mistress wraps her own arms around her companion, comforting herself in the fake presence of the human.

The tea has been cool for a while when the Time Lady finally releases Florence. She breathes out another shuddering breath as she stands, fixing up her clothes with a thought. Her voice is cracked when she speaks again.

"You are in a Gallifreyan hard drive which I'm using to store the last electrical impulses of people as they die. I used… A little more space for you. I'm sorry- I can't!" The Mistress' voice breaks again. She turns to an archway.

"You can have your run of the place. If you think it it will happen so… Goodbye, Florence Elizabeth Wright." She starts to disappear.

"Goodbye, Mistress." Florence returns, "I didn't think I would like you so much either." The Mistress fades before she can hear the end.

The human takes a breath and feels cold all of a sudden.

The blanket that appears around her shoulders does nothing to improve the ice settling in her throat.

Many more things are smashed and broken, crushed beneath the once-human's shoes.

Cries, shrieks and screams echo through the Nethersphere for days.

Seb has to blame it on a leak from one of the lower levels of the place.


	34. Chapter 34

"3W. Death is not an end. But we can we help with that. Ever since 3W encountered the truth about the death experience, 'we have been working hard to find a better life for the deceased. At 3W, afterlife means aftercare." She reads the words, putting on a computerised accent- that should throw him off until he saw her. The puppy is confused but to be fair to her she _is_ only human.

"Okay. Bit strange?" Her Doctor's eyebrows furrow as he stares at the writing and a smile flickers over her face at the gesture she is so familiar with.

"Very. Why have the scrolling and a voice? Is it difficult?" The Mistress quickly wipes the emotion from her face. Should have known he would catch her easily- bit cheeky there too but never mind. The pup still looks confused and rather a bit mopey.

"Is what difficult?" The Doctor barely glances at the human, keeping his eyes fixed on her.

"Reading all those words back to front. Come on. We've come a long way." His eyebrows raise slightly and he smiles gently, like when they were just young boys. Definitely more cheeky than she's used to though. The poor puppy is giving off sad eyes still, as if she really misses her toy soldier. The Mistress walks forwards, the mesh of words disintegrating with her passing.

"Hello. I hope you're well." She can't manage to keep the smile off of her face as she sees him again, it's been too long since she last saw a friend, "How may I assist you with your death?" His awkward expression lightens her heart somewhat until he walks straight past her, not even smiling at their little joke.

"Well, there is, er, no immediate hurry. We're just, er. We're just-" Missy watches him, gaze fixed purely on him as he scrambles for an answer. The pup cuts him off and Missy has to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

Control freak.

The Doctor agrees with the human and Missy grins at them both.

"Please, take all the time you need." She schools her face into something a bit more innocent, "At 3W, you always have the rest of your life." Her Doctor only looks more awkward. Her delivery isn't _that_ bad, is it?

"Oh, good. That's good to know, Clara, isn't it?" The pup rapidly agrees, nodding her head. At least someone is taking her threat level seriously, even if it is just one of the primitive apes.

"Exactly what is 3W?" At this the Mistress pauses. Surely he knows why he's here? You can't be _that_ bad at piloting a T.A.R.D.I.S, _can you?_ And the puppy looks so down so it must be the right time.

Isn't it?

"Apologies. Clearly you have not received the official 3W greetings package." She states, reconfiguring the plan in her mind. The Doctor fumbles with words.

"Well, you know, it's just an unexpected-" Missy pushes him against the wall, smiling at the look of shock on his face. Gently she places the information just inside his mind- he never could get the hang of putting up good mental defences- and she kisses him. He doesn't particularly seem to mind even as he gropes for the wall behind him. She had thought he would be more awkward about this kind of thing in front of his companions, especially with this regeneration's distaste for physical affection.

As long as he doesn't go sharing his talent for it with everyone else she sure as hell doesn't mind.

Slightly breathless she parts from him, still clinging to the wall. She presses her lips against his proud nose three times before slipping out of range, drinking in the Doctor's traumatized state- way to make a Lady feel loved. She isn't quite sure she keeps the excitement from showing as she gasps a little. He stares at her and Missy is almost disappointed by the confusion spinning in his mind.

"Welcome to the 3W Institute." Her Doctor ignores her.

"Clara, is it over now?" She hides her disgust as the ape talks. Well, whispers- looks like she terrified the human as well.

"I think it's over, yeah." Maybe she can make him jealous? Missy stares at the ape, wide-eyed, still feeling the ecstasy at her small mental connection to him.

"You also have not received the official welcome package." She offers, the ape seems disturbed.

"Oh, I'm good, thanks. No worries." Stupid ape. Ruining her plans.

"Who are you?"

It seems she caught him earlier in his time line than she thought.


	35. Chapter 35

"I am Missy." Because it was a name her companion never used. The pup questions her of course, just to rub in the fact she is still alive for now.

"Missy?"

"Mobile Intelligent Systems Interface. I am a multi-function, interactive welcome-droid. Helping you to help me to help you." She improvises, emphasising the computerised touch on this bit. Might as well play along for a bit. Her Doctor stares at her, expression somewhere between confusion and horror.

"You're very er… Realistic." The Doctor has finally managed to regain his breath.

"Tongues?" The puppy quips and the slight tint of blush makes the Mistress internally give a point to the pup. After all- anyone that embarrasses the Doctor can't be _that_ bad really.

"Shut up."

Missy inserts herself back into the conversation.

"I am fully programmed with social interaction norms appropriate to a range of visitors. Please indicate if you'd like me to adjust my intimacy setting." She trills the r on range to give a bit more variety to her speech as she watches the Time Lord peel himself off the wall, obviously still feeling the… after-effects.

"Oh, yes, please. Please do that. Do that now right now." He actually seems a bit mad- a shame as he obviously enjoyed it as much as she did. She almost pouts as the pup agrees with him.

"Maybe just a tad, yeah." Fine. No kissing for a little while.

"I need to speak to whoever's in charge here." He continues, still flustered.

"I am in charge." The human seems somewhat amused by her impersonation but the Doctor only gets more frustrated.

"Well, who's in charge of you?" He just won't leave this alone, will he?

"I'm in charge of me." The answer is instantaneous. He stares at her in irritation.

"Well, who repairs you? Who, who maintains you?" She doesn't laugh even though she really wants to.

"I am programmed for self-repair. I am maintained by my heart." Missy could never resist pushing all the buttons she can. She takes his hand in both of hers and places it against her chest.

"Is everything in order?" His eyebrows join his hairline- surely he has noticed by now. Even when they're racing as much as they are now _surely_ the Doctor- _her_ Doctor- can feel her twin heartbeats.

"Who maintains your heart?" As he says it he stares into her eyes and she can see that he knows. She maintains her gaze, reading how much he misses her and how much he mourns her death still. She wants to kiss him but manages to keep her arms by her sides as she remembers that she has 'adjusted her intimacy setting'.

"My heart is maintained by the Doctor." Missy tells the truth.

Neither of them breathe as they stand, his hand still against her chest, her hands wrapped around his wrist.

"Doctor who?" She knows that he wants her to admit it, tell him explicitly what they both know. She chuckles hollowly at the question so many people have asked him, remembering when Florence had asked whom she was a Mistress to. With a smirk she calls out.

"Doctor Chang!" Quickly she begins walking away, letting her employee distract them.

She waits behind a corner, listening to their conversation. The Doctor certainly has mellowed out a little as he's grown into this regeneration- and become a lot more observant. How the hell _hasn't_ he noticed the matrix data-slice floating in the corner of the room?

She turns on the feed to the human's office.

"Come in, come in. Going to need to take a reading off you." Missy lets herself laugh at this, knowing that they can't see her now- as if they haven't been being scanned the whole time they were here. The human reassures the Doctor's pet as the Doctor looks into the tank in the middle of the office.

"How does the body keep its integrity? Why isn't it just a bunch of bones floating about?" He questions the man.

"Each body is encased in a support exoskeleton." She can almost hear the sound of the pennies dropping in the Doctor's mind.


	36. Chapter 36

"An invisible exoskeleton?" Like bugs, quite fitting really.

"It's only invisible in the water. There's a specially engineered refraction index in the fluid so we can see the tank resident unimpeded by the support mechanisms." She doubts the pet understands any of that.

"So each skeleton is inside something?" She can almost feel the pieces start clicking into place inside her Doctor's mind.

Cybermen- _her_ Cybermen- superior to any others, just like their creator. Missy smirks, placing her hand against the glass. Who even tries to be good these days? The cyberman reaches out too, the skeleton inside seeming to stop several centimetres from the glass.

"We call it dark water. Only organic matter can be seen through it. I keep saying they should use this stuff in swimming pools." Humans really do say the silliest things to people they don't know.

"Why?" Sometimes Missy wondered how long the Doctor had _really_ spent on Earth for him to be so oblivious. Maybe it was just this regeneration, she can't recall the others being so consistently clueless.

"I am thinking about it. Why?" Rassilon, he regenerated badly. Maybe he _should_ go back to Gallifrey and see an _actual_ doctor with _real_ qualifications.

"You're here on business or they wouldn't have let you in. Sorry. Should have checked. Who are you?" And now the ape gets some brains- maybe she should have screened her employees? Then again it's not like she needs them to do anything important…

"I thought that you would never ask. Sort out your security protocols, they're a disgrace." Maybe being prickly is a thing for this regeneration- makes a change. Missy can't say it really disappoints her.

"Another government inspection? So soon? Why is there all this swearing?" Missy almost falls over in laughter- must be the psychic paper.

The Scottishness is quite funny this time around. normally Time Lords maintain a similar personality- if you can call having a stick up your arse personality- but not her Doctor. Oh, no, not him- he changes almost completely- makes things interesting whenever she first encounters him again.

"Oh, I've got a lot of internalised anger." And doesn't Missy know the half of it, "What does 3W stand for?" She swears that there never has or will be anything in existence with more self-loathing and guilt than her Doctor.

"Seriously? You don't know?" The ape sounds shocked. Missy isn't sure why- surely when someone says they don't know something and they aren't under threat it can be presumed that they really don't. Her Doctor seems to share her irritation.

"Never mind what we know and what we don't know, just answer our question." If only he would, the whole conversation is getting so boring Missy isn't sure whether she can resist the urge to just set loose her cybermen and take over the world for real rather than set the stage for the Doctor.

"We're not going to freak out." Oh, she can just imagine those eyebrows dancing about. Maybe the Doctor is so unstable this regeneration because he spent so much time on his eyebrows that he forgot to think about things like social cues.

"She'll be fine."

"Speak for me again, I'll detach something from you. I'll be fine." Considering the Doctor's awareness of almost everything around him she'd have a hard time getting anywhere near him and even if she did Missy would find a way to kill her even with the Quantum Shade following her.

"You know how people are scared of dying? Like, everybody." Oh, Gallifrey, the humans are irritating.

"Of course. It's the most fundamental fear in the universe." At least her Doctor is equally annoyed she supposes with a snort.

"They'd be a lot more scared if they knew what it was really like."


	37. Chapter 37

"White noise off the telly. We've all heard it. A few years ago, Doctor Skarosa, our founder, did something unexpected. He played that noise through a translation matrix of his own devising. This is a recording of what he heard." It had been easy enough to plant the idea and means to do it into his mind and it was making her cover story- well, lack of one she supposes- a lot more believable.

Humans, they'll believe anything.

"So what?" Seriously, they don't need to know the history of the place! Is the human _really_ going to go on about everything but what they asked?

"Over time, Doctor Skarosa became convinced these were the voices of the recently departed. He believed it was a telepathic communication from the dead." The only telepathic communication that had been going on had been the delusions Missy kept putting in his tiny little brain.

"Why? Was he an idiot?" Yes, yes he was. A fool with too much money and a lack of sanity is still a fool.

Missy allows herself a small chuckle as she remembers killing the man- was she rather happy to be rid of him.

"So, an idiot then." Yes, humans do tend to be. Everyone knows that white noise from the telly is really The Beast trying to reach out to new victims- part of why it became so unpopular in later centuries.

"What I'm about to play you will change your life and not for the better. These are the three words which caused Doctor Skarosa to set up institutes, like this one, all over the world, to protect the dead. If you'd rather not hear these words, there's still time." She swears she can hear the Doctor roll his eyes though the audio feed. Dramatic and stupid- her Doctor hates it when people who aren't him do that.

"Can you just hurry up, please, or I'll hit you with my shoe." Missy wouldn't complain if he did- in fact she might endorse it.

"There is one simple, horrible possibility that has never occurred to anyone throughout human history." Oh, of course it didn't, not one single person in history _ever_ thought it. Hmm, maybe Missy had been spending too much time with humans. Sarcasm wasn't exactly on the syllabus in Arcadia.

"The dead remain conscious. The dead are fully aware of everything that is happening to them." She was definitely going to get rid of this one- call it her duty to prune the truly gullible and stupid from the human race.

"Fakery. All of it. It's a con, it's a racket!" Yes, the whole thing is a con but, oh, her dear Doctor didn't know the extent yet!

"I promise you this is not a con." And she was the Nestene Consciousness.

"What's that beeping?" Ah, yes. Missy had quite forgotten the puppy was there.

"Never mind about beeping. Who cares about beeping? The dead are dead. They're not talking to you out of your television sets. They're just gone!" The Mistress remembers the feeling of killing, of destroying as many of those vermin as she could. Somehow it doesn't manage to get rid of the pain.

She claps and her creations stand.

"And all these poor souls down there in these tanks, I'm sorry, but they're just dead and they're not coming back." The Mistress wishes the Doctor would shut up as she watches all the cybermen rise.

Maybe she could create some device- something to bring her back. Surely there must be something?

Her gaze falls on the piece around her wrist. She could even test it out later on soldier boy to be sure there would be no damage.

"This isn't possible. The dead don't come back." But the Mistress would make sure her dead could.

"It was him. It was his voice." It almost tastes sour, the idea that Missy might be making the pup happy by trying to grant her own wish.


	38. Chapter 38

"If they scanned you telepathically, they could've lifted a voice print. It could still be a fake." The Mistress doubts the human is even pretending to listen by now.

"Getting him back, very nearly!" It is quite impressive considering the reception in this building she supposes. Helps the dramatics though- poor little puppy being all held up in suspense- she could almost picture those soppy eyes and glum expression.

"Question him. Ask him questions only he'd know the answer to. Be sure. You, with me." Ah- her Doctor is coming, "I've got to check out those tanks. There's something that I'm missing." Yes, there would be something missing in a moment.

The Mistress rolls her eyes, holding back a scoff as the Doctor spills out some kind of advice. Does he think the human will listen?

"Who would harvest dead bodies? I feel like I'm missing something obvious." She hears the door open. He really is missing something obvious- just one glance at those doors and he should have known. She might as well have written 'This place is full of cybermen my dear Doctor- love Missy (aka the Mistress) (aka the Master)' over them.

She snaps her fingers.

"Humankind- bring out your dead!" She sings as each and every cyberman in the building stands and activates the tank draining mechanism. Maybe she should become an entertainer one day- she was definitely funny enough and her singing _was_ rather delightful.

"Oh, my God. The tanks- the tanks are activating! They're not supposed to do that!" Enter Idiot Number One, pursued by sarcastic Scottish Time Lord.

"And all your dead people are standing. Don't you think you skipped the headline?" The Mistress steps into the corridor, a smile on her lips.

"Now, now, children. Naughty, naughty." Might as well stick with the nanny theme if possible. Where had she put that umbrella? She remembered having one somewhere…

"Doctor Chang, your welcome droid has developed a fault." Missy pouts as her Doctor focuses on the human. Chang's nervous expression almost makes her laugh.

"That's not a droid. That's my boss." Don't you hate it when your client mistakes your boss for a robot?

Oh, never happened to you- strange.

"You know, I might have been guilty of a just teensy little fibette." She raises her hand to indicate how small her lie was, "Doctorr Chang, I _really_ liked working with you. I've enjoyed _every_ day of it." If being bored out of your skull was enjoying yourself. The Mistress brings her weapon up to point at the hapless employee.

"I'm sorry?" He should be, Missy might have lost some of her wit because of his endless fascination with simple things.

"You know, I've even got a little photograph of you looking so sweet. I'm always going to keep it. Always!" She thinks she had one at some point. Maybe she already burned it? She glances at the Doctor who just stares at them both, horrified.

"Are you going to kill me?" Oh, the irony- being killed in a mausoleum.

"Now, come on. Let's not dwell on horrid things. This is going to be our last conversation, and I'm the one who's going to have to live with that." There are some last conversations she definitely would remember. Doesn't seem like this is shaping up to be one of them.

"Please don't kill me." Oh, how original.

"Say something nice." Or something new. Or something not boring- Missy really isn't too picky at this point.

"Please, please. I don't, I don't want to die. You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Oh, for heaven's sake- with all the irony that invokes- hadn't she already covered this?

"Say something nice." She insists again.

"Please!"

"Doctor Chang, I've got all day. And I'm not going to kill you until you say something nice." The Mistress pouts at the irritating ape, resisting the urge to just kill him outright.

"It has been an absolute pleasure working with you, and I truly believe that you'll never be able to find it in your heart to murder me." What an idiot.


	39. Chapter 39

Missy puckers her lips as she fires, his body turning to ashes before he can run. She can hear the Doctor step backwards softly. Missy points at him.

"Now, I'll be with you in a moment. Just feeling a bit emotional at the moment." She pretends to wipe away a tear in mourning.

"Cybermen!" He stares at them in shock, "They're Cybermen, all of them- we've got to stop them getting out!" The Mistress rolls her eyes, gesturing to the matrix data-slice. She saunters towards it, hands on hips.

"Now who's missing the headline? The Nethersphere. You know it's ever so funny, the people that live inside that think they've gone to heaven." The Doctor looks up at it, fear overtaking his shock.

"That's a matrix data-slice. A Gallifreyan hard drive." He says as if she didn't know, "Time Lord technology." When his gaze finally falls on her she can see the anger hiding just behind his worry.

"Imagine you could upload dying minds to that." She watches the sphere spin lazily, thinking of the one she built it for. She changes track. The Doctor doesn't know about her yet, "Edit them. Rearrange them. Get rid of all those boring emotions. Ready to be re-downloaded. Meanwhile, you upgrade the bodies." She smiles at him through half-lidded eyes.

"Upload the mind, upgrade the body. Cybermen from cyberspace. Now, why has no-one ever thought of that before?" Her Doctor just stares at her in horror.

"How did you get hold of Time Lord technology? Who are you?" Doesn't he ever listen?

"You know who I am. I told you. You felt it. Surely you did." She knows he knows- he must! How could he ever forget her?

"Two hearts." Something close to happiness blooms in the Mistress' chest as he starts to acknowledge what his brain must have been telling him the whole time.

"And both of them yours." And it's the truth- for her oldest friend she would do anything, especially when it meant she could play the villain. There really was no fun in being good. She knew that now.

"You're a Time Lord." He can be so obstinate sometimes.

"Time Lady, please, I'm old-fashioned." As much as she hates to admit it she does still use the Time Lord's speech patterns even after all the time spent running from them. Well, chasing her Doctor really- but no one cares about the details.

"Which Time Lady?" How dare he keep playing this stupid little game!

"The one you abandoned, Doctor. The one you left for dead. Didn't you ever think I'd find my way back?" His eyes widen. Missy can feel the anger of waiting, the feeling of abandonment when he didn't come for her even though she saved him. The Mistress before Florence.

"Clara. Clara. Clara. I've got to get Clara!" Does he ever listen to himself? Missy watches the Doctor run to the lift.

"Oh, Clara, Clara, Clara! You know I should shoot you in a jealous rage. Now, wouldn't that be sexy? I've turned the lift off, though." Why is that human any more important then the rest- more important than _her_?

"I presume you have stairs." No. She flies whenever the lift breaks. Lifts really aren't all that great on twenty-first century Earth- she would have installed a later model if she didn't have to deal with U.N.I.T occasionally wandering in. After all the blonde woman didn't try and pin her with period inaccuracy so she can't have done that.

"Well, I'm not a Dalek." Yet sometimes she feels like he treats her only slightly better than one. The Doctor pulls out his sonic screwdriver and with a little manipulation the door opens.

Should she have told him it wasn't locked?

She joins him on the stairs as he stares out at London.

"Oh, dear, Doctor. Didn't you realise where you were?" She sings, swinging her arms slightly.

As he starts charging down the stairs Missy sits down to watch the drama unfold.

"Get away from here! All of you, run!" Running wouldn't change a thing. He flaps his arms like some demented bird and the Mistress brings out her phone, discretely capturing a video of this for later amusement. It seems that this regeneration is half angry Scotsman, half socially inept owl.

Her cybermen stomp out onto the streets.

"Go! Go! Get away from here! Run away! Run, run! Get away from here all of you, now!" He doesn't run out of energy, does he? They should film the adverts for the batteries with him.

"I'm sorry, everyone. Another ranting Scotsman in the street. I had no idea there was a match on." She calls out to the crowd as he keeps shouting. Did she remember to warn U.N.I.T she was coming? That could ruin the whole thing!

"Get away, go!" Several of the humans are staring at him in bewilderment and irritation now. Oh, she would have to save him from his stupidity again, wouldn't she?

"Stop shouting, love." She grabs hold of his arm, "Stop making a fuss. It's too late. All the graves of planet Earth are about to give birth." A miracle in most scenarios. With a breathy voice she whispers in his ear.

"You know the key strategic weakness of the human race? The dead outnumber the living." She can see his face drop in fear.

"Who are you?" The Mistress can't help but sigh at his stubbornness.

"Oh, you know who I am. I'm Missy." She has to remember that this Doctor is damaged somehow- a little more dense than usual.

"Who's Missy?" Missy sighs, rolling her eyes in exasperation as she reveals the truth.

"Please, try to keep up. Short for Mistress." She smiles at the look of pain on his face, "Well, I couldn't very well keep calling myself the Master, now could I?" Remorse, worry-

The Doctor steps back.


	40. Chapter 40

The cybermen march onwards.

"Look at them! My boys." Missy proclaims proudly, mostly to the Doctor- no one else seems to be taking much notice yet.

"Cybermen in broad daylight? You think people won't notice?" The Doctor looks around incredulously as the Mistress pulls the pins out of the hat, slipping them into her pocket. She pops it upside down in front of the closest cyberman.

"Photos with the big metal men, one pound." Several humans take the opportunity to take photos with what could be the object of their demise, throwing coins into her hat as they pass.

"Oh, honey!" Missy croons to the Doctor as he stares in disbelief.

She pulls out her phone.

"New York. Paris. Rome. Marrakesh. Brisbane. Glasgow." She flips through the news reports, showing the Doctor the extent of her power, "Everywhere. Anywhere. Me and my boys. We're going viral." She spreads her arms, gesturing to the world as a whole.

The Doctor says nothing, just watching in silent horror as the Mistress raises her phone to the sky, puckering her lips for the camera. The Doctor looks at her in disgust but Missy couldn't care less.

"Would you like me to take a picture? Sorry, selfies are never as good, are they? And you're having a lovely moment. Hang on!" The human grins, interrupting them. The Mistress is quite offended by the ape's impertinence. She plucks the phone right out of Missy's hand.

Well, that just put her on the 'to kill' list.

The Time Lady tries to grab it back,

"Hang on there- don't you-" The Doctor grabs her arm in both hands, pretending to pose. The Mistress looks down, shocked by the feeling of his fingers clasped so tightly around her arms.

She remembers when they had been able to walk hand in hand instead of being so out of step with each other. It's a sad recollection but she supposes that's what life is when you live long enough to have a history like theirs.

"Nice bow tie." She vaguely realises her Doctor is trying to make small talk. The human replies with something or other, lips moving even despite Missy's distraction.

She feels the Doctor's gaze on her and the faint confusion coming from his mind.

"Big smiles, and now!" Noise erupts after the human shouts the last word. People are yelling and the Mistress snaps to attention, hearing guns being readied.

Maybe she should have thought this through a little better- she can't kill them with the Doctor clinging to her like this and without her handy little app.

They are surrounded within seconds.

Then the blonde bane of her brief business trip to Earth walks up through the soldiers, as casually as you like, holding something behind her back.

"Afternoon. You've picked a lovely day for it. My, don't you look shiny." She turns to the Doctor "Haircut?" The Time Lord raises his eyebrows slightly, not yet recognising the woman.

"Bit of a trim." The Mistress looks away- they really should learn not to ignore the main threat- I mean Cybermen _and_ the Mistress. She's surprised they didn't all pull a sick-day.

"Might want to do your roots." Missy almost smiles at this- _almost_ \- "The woman." Blondie points at her and the Mistress can't help but look back at the soldiers sceptically.

"Yes, ma'am." She doesn't resist as they grab her and manages not to roll her eyes- she could fling them off like children on swing sets if she wanted. Her Doctor stares at her in confusion and Missy manages to catch his gaze.

' _I told you humans are violent.'_ If he's surprised by the communication he doesn't show it.


	41. Chapter 41

She lets them drag her backwards and immediately Blondie starts prattling on about something or other- she has the feeling it's directed at her- as if she had already won every war in history single handed.

"Human weaponry is not effective against Cyber technology."

She watches the Doctor's face move in response to words the blonde is saying.

People should sell tickets. She has a front row seat and she must say his eyebrows are quite impressive in their performance.

Maybe she should sell tickets?

Interesting idea after she gets Florence back- put that on the to-do list.

Rassilon- does the ape ever shut up? The Mistress was going to run out of things to think about at this rate!

The hold on her arms tightens a little and she remembers, stopping herself from moving forward again.

Can't risk the plan just to kill her.

"Am I?" The Doctor speaks and the surprise on his face catches Missy off guard. She runs over the Blondie's speech again mentally.

Oh.

Oh!

That's brilliant- Blondie takes a point! Employing her Doctor- why would anyone ever want to do that! What an idiot! She's not sure which of them is stupider (well of course it's the human but sometimes her Doctor seems close enough to count as one).

She grins at him in amusement and he seems somewhat confused- this is too perfect! Missy is going to ensure she remembers this forever.

Her Cybermen's fists clunk against the glowing blue disc on their chests- she has to admit she's a sucker for aesthetics- and stomp the ground, activating the engines in their feet.

The Mistress can only be proud of them- her boys. And girls. And the occasional alien who died on the planet.

They all converted just as well in the end.

Her 'captors' drag her backwards and Missy grins victoriously at her Cybermen as they shoot off like human-sized fireworks.

The Doctor spreads his arms in exasperation, staring off after them.

The soldiers take aim but her creations are far out of reach by now unless they get _really_ lucky.

The roof of the huge building starts peeling back and- judging by the humans' (and most importantly the Doctor's) reactions- it's somehow more important than the ones around it.

Whoops.

Her Cybermen keep pouring out the top and she sees the Doctor's face contort from horror into- finally- anger.

The human with the bow tie speaks.

"Oh, my God! Is it supposed to do that? Is that new?" You've got to love human logic and their affection for presuming things are all under control on their little planet hurtling through space. She knows Florence had- _has_ \- similar tendencies. Maybe she'd like a companion when the Mistress had her safe and back on the T.A.R.D.I.S.

"A sun roof on Saint Paul's? Yes, I'd say that was new." Ah- she did like the prickliness of the Doctor's new personality.

Blondie speaks again.

"Everyone in London just clapped and went whee. Hush, I'm trying to count." His eyebrows furrow further and the Mistress imagines one day they will joins hands and leap straight off his face to fight his battles for him.

"Eighty seven, I think. OCD." Impressive for a human. Even more impressive that she beat the Doctor even if wrong about the answer- mathematics was always his strong point unlike T.A.R.D.I.S piloting, anything to do with mental communication or defences and general Time Lordliness.

"Ninety one." She corrects the human then shrugs a little in an attempt to ease the human's shock, "Queen of evil." The Mistress moves her arms a little, still letting the soldiers think they've got her, and gives a curtsy of sorts as she introduces herself.

"How could Saint Paul's be full of ninety one Cybermen and nobody noticed?" Blondie again.

"Dimensional engineering. One space folded inside another. Bigger on the inside. Easy if you're a Time Lord." He frowns at her as if disappointed.

Oh if he knew the real reason behind everything.


	42. Chapter 42

"Mostly deploying south, a smaller number east." She can't help but laugh as the humans report in.

"Yep, but one straight up." A single cyberman hovers above the building.

"So ninety one isn't a coincidence?"

"Of course it isn't." Scoffs the Doctor, taking Missy's phone from Osgood. He walks towards her, her phone clasped tightly in his hand. He pulls up something and almost instantly his eyebrows draw in. The Mistress smiles.

Blondie speaks and the human she thinks Florence will like responds.

"Ninety one areas of significant population density in the British Isles." The Doctor scowls, venting his frustration through facial gymnastics.

"That's one Cyberman for every city and major town. It's happening everywhere, all over the world, right now." Missy fakes a frown, looking at the ground a little before looking back up at her Doctor.

"Sweet planet, this. I think I might keep it." She smiles sweetly (or attempts to). Blondie still doesn't seem to get it.

The cyberman above them explodes, a cloud beginning to spread outwards from it. The Mistress stares upwards, watching the fireworks. The humans let go of her in shock. Again the blonde asks a stupid question.

"More than that. Cybermen don't just blow themselves up for no good reason, dear. They're not human." She has to shout over the sound of explosions which unfortunately makes her sound less patronising.

"If it's not exploding, what's it doing?" She smirks.

"Pollinating." The Mistress raises her arms to the sky, "Falling like rain into the cracks of the Earth." She slowly brings her arms and head down, the cloud growing in the sky. Missy grabs the Doctor's lapels, dragging them closer together and looking directly into his horror-struck eyes.

"The dead are coming home, Doctor. All shiny and new." She croons, "In twenty four hours the human race as you know it will cease to exist." Her voice softens as she watches understanding dawn over his face.

"What are you doing? Explain. Tell me now." She can feel the humans' arms move near her neck. The doctor seems blind to it as he makes his demands. The dart sticks in her neck and she can't help but let out a gasp as the chemicals travel into her bloodstream. She reaches to remove it then changes her mind. She recognises this mix.

"Oh! That was nice." The Mistress is vaguely aware that her pupils have contracted as her view starts to dim.

"Let's do it again." Human hands close around her arms again and Missy lets her mind drift off, surrendering to the chemicals to allow her body to process them faster.

The Mistress' awareness begins to return. Her body doesn't move but she can feel the Doctor's mind nearby.

They're on a plane from what the Doctor has observed and- as long as the humans haven't lied to him- she's in the cargo hold with the girl scientist.

The Doctor clambers down the ladder.

Missy feels control of her body return and lets out a gasp as she opens her eyes. She double checks her surroundings, readjusting to seeing with her own eyes.

"Why are you still alive?" The Mistress fixes her uncooperative gaze on him. She feels a rush of affection and tries to smile, not that her face seems to be obeying.

"You saved me." Her words are still slow and sluggish, after-effects of not properly being woken up she presumes.

"I saved Gallifrey." Missy looks away, amused by his excuse. She sees the female human in the corner with her phone (she supposed it was one after all- it just did other more useful things too).

"Yes, Gallifrey too, I suppose." She concedes, "There's always collateral damage with you and me. It's our Paris."

"Gallifrey's lost in another dimension." She can feel the weight of his guilt like a pillow over a human's face.

"Yes and no." The Doctor locks his eyes on hers, curious.

"Meaning?" It's one word but Missy can feel the hope that lays coiled around it.

"Yes, it's in another dimension. No, it's not lost." She lets her head rest against the back of her restraints, teasing him.


	43. Chapter 43

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally caught up with my progress on fanfiction.net- updates should be weekly on a Sunday by now.

"You know where it is?" The Doctor's face is a picture. The Mistress can't help but smile.

"Yep! You know the best part about knowing?" She feels the grin stretch wider over her face as she pauses, "Not telling you." His brows drop in disappointment, the corners of his lips dragged further downwards.

"Mister President, sir, we're ready for you up here." A voice crackles over the intercom. She chuckles as the Doctor begins walking away.

"Remember all those years when all you wanted to do was to rule the world?" He turns to face her, pride evident in the subtle smirk which she doubts he realises he has, "On my way." He walks again and Missy is faintly impressed.

"Thank you, Mister President." Oh- he was loving this, wasn't he?

"Piece of cake." She rolls her eyes. The Doctor stands beside the scientist. It takes her a moment to notice but Osgood puts the phone down.

"Oh, er, it's her little device thingy. I thought there might be useful information on it. Who is she?" The human blabbers, trying to explain despite her excitement at the Doctor taking interest in her. He sighs in response.

"You'd never believe me if I told you." The Mistress recognises the glint in the scientist's eye at the challenge from Florence.

"Cos I thought she might be the Master, regenerated into female form? Your childhood friend, responsible for a number of previous incursions." She prompts, pausing before each bit of information to let it sink in.

Missy is both shocked and pleased. The Doctor is too except his eyebrows are doing a good job of hiding the pleased. That almost sets the Mistress off again.

"That was fairly quick." The young woman eyes her cautiously.

"We do have files on all our ex-prime ministers. She wasn't even the worst." The Time Lord looks at her in embarrassment. If Missy was flattering him she would say he was embarrassed about her not being the worst. If she wasn't restrained she would wave, "Doctor, there's something nobody's talking about."

"Which is?" The Mistress listens interestedly- and not just because there wasn't anything particularly interesting going on in the room otherwise.

"The clouds caused by the exploding Cybermen, they haven't dispersed. They're still there. In fact, they've expanded and are covering almost all the land masses. We're all looking at the graveyards. Maybe we should be looking up? What do you think?" Missy is glad for the status update but the Doctor's next words stop her still.

"All of time and space?"

"Sorry?"

"Just something for your bucket list." Osgood takes a second to realise and in that time the Doctor leaves. The scientist takes a breath from her inhaler.

The Mistress can see Florence in the human's place and redoubles her efforts to pick the handcuffs.

She sticks her tongue out at the camera she knows the Doctor is watching through.

He won't win.

The Gallifreyan can tell she has almost got through the cuffs.

"Hey, Missy, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind. Hey, Missy. Hey." She stops abruptly, feeling more than hearing the click as the restraints come loose and hoping her singing was enough to cover it. Missy allows herself a small laugh before calming the excitement.

"Excuse me. Hi. Can I tell you something really important?" She grins widely at the horrified human.

"What." The Mistress looks to each side, ignoring the guards. She leans forwards slightly.

"I have to whisper it. It's, like, so important to everyone on this plane. You'll get in trouble if you don't listen." The human turns away, trying to ignore her- how rude!

"Right. If it was that important, why would you tell us?" The mad woman _just_ stops herself from laughing as the scientist turns to look at her again.

"Well, look at me, I'm bananas." She states seriously with a flicker of a dark smile passing over her lips.


	44. Chapter 44

"Come on. Just a wee bit closer. Just a little closer." The Mistress wheedles, "You know, the Doctor will be really impressed if you learn my secret." Missy dangles the carrot and the human steps closer. The Time Lady smiles, lips pulled into a tight smile- the soldiers could stop her at any time.

"You can come a bit closer than that. Come on, stop mucking about. Don't be shy. You don't smell half as bad as you think you do." Osgood takes another step forwards. And another- the Mistress can't believe a scientist could be so stupid. The men still haven't stopped her.

"There are two armed men directly behind you." The human stands directly in front of Missy now, trying to convince herself of her safety.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She can feel the nervous energy radiating from the silly girl.

"If you've got something to say, just say it." The Mistress smiles. She glances over her shoulder at each soldier.

The Time Lady clears her throat and Osgood leans in to listen.

"I'm going to kill you in a minute. I'm not even kidding." The Mistress whispers into the scientist's ear, "You're going to be as dead as a fish on a slab any second now, all floppy and making smells. But don't tell the boys. This is our secret girl plan." She can't help but grin as the human turns to face her. The Mistress widens her eyes, sucks her cheeks in and gawps at the scientist. While the human is too busy being horrified she slips the handcuffs into a pocket- were U.N.I.T always this incompetent?

"Why would you bother killing me? I'm not even important." Missy rolls her eyes- surely if the soldiers had any sense at all they would have killed her by now. She remembers Florence asking a similar question, feels a touch of sympathy for the girl in front of her.

"Oh, silly. Why does one pop a balloon? Because you're pretty. You should have a bit more confidence in yourself." The human shifts awkwardly, discomforted by the compliments.

"Okay. Sorry, I've got work to do." The girl turns back to her desk and resumes fiddling with Missy's phone.

"All right, fine. You get on. You get that finished. Would a countdown help you focus at all?" The human pretends to be exasperated.

"No, that's okay." So she starts.

"Ten. Don't be scared yet, cos I'm still in double figures."

"I'm not scared." The humans lies quickly, an automatic response.

"Nine. Well, no, of course you're not, cos you know you're dying anyway." The Mistress thinks of Florence- she was scared too, "Eight. Human beings are born dying. Your life spans are hilarious." Hilariously sad when they're over even when they've been extended far beyond what even Time Lords can hope to reach naturally. Hilarious like when your only options are die fighting or be tortured for trying to get out of fighting then die.

"Please be quiet."

"Seven. You know from the minute you slop out, you're rotting, decaying. The stench of you. Phew. I'm never going to get this place clean." Sometimes the T.A.R.D.I.S still smells of her, "Three."

"Three?" The human turns in confusion, panic written all over her face.

"I'm accelerating for dramatic effect." And to stop thinking about her being dead, "Oh! What's that in your pocket?" The Mistress wets her lips.

"There's nothing in my pocket." Slowly Osgood reaches into her pocket and pulls out a pair of handcuffs.

"Oh my giddy aunt. The quiet ones are the worst." The human stares at them, as if doubting they're real.

"Well, those aren't mine." Then she realises.

"Hmm." The Mistress reapplies her lipstick, "Then they must be mine."


	45. Chapter 45

The Mistress springs forwards, swiping her phone from the scientist's desk and swinging an arm around the scientist's neck, dragging her back with the momentum. She fires and the two soldiers are dust.

"Say something nice." Her cheek brushes the human's hair and Missy can feel the trembling beat of it's single heart.

"Missy, the Master, whatever you call yourself, I promise, I'm much more useful to you alive." She mimes the words with the human- they're just so easy to read. The Mistress pretends to think before she replies.

"Oh, yeah, that's true. That's definitely true. That is a good point well made. I'm proud of you, sister." The Time Lady grins as the human hopes, "But did I mention bananas! Pop." And the human crumbles to ash.

Missy reattaches her brooch- must have come undone from all the movement- and smiles.

"Ah. Thanks for being yummy." She steps forwards, crushing the glasses and grinds them into the floor. The Mistress engages her bracelet, sends a quick command to the Cybermen and grips one of the safety straps dangling from the ceiling.

Seconds later the plane begins to swerve. Missy squeals in delight.

Gradually she makes her way to the T.A.R.D.I.S, laughing as she stumbles over rolling objects and slips on paper.

She can hear the Doctor coming.

The Mistress ducks behind the T.A.R.D.I.S, stifling giggles. She waits, hears him slide down the ladder and the faint crunch as he finds Osgood's glasses. The grief hits her like a fist to chest but she grins regardless, peeking around the edge of the T.A.R.D.I.S. She's pretty sure she comes back to life anyway- there were traces of a very similar mind around the U.N.I.T containment facilities in the brief time she spent there.

Ah- _now_ she knows why they hate her in the future.

Bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy there.

She steps further out, watching him.

He turns to face her, angry but inactive.

The Mistress leans against the T.A.R.D.I.S, faking nonchalance. She fiddles with her phone, rechecking that the human hadn't messed up her settings.

"Oh, she was really scared. It's classic." The Time Lady stands properly, swinging her arms from side to side, "Have you got any more friends I can play with?" Her voice comes out childish and she internally preens at the effect. She walks towards him with halting steps, pretending she's having trouble balancing as her Cybermen tear the plane apart.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," She holds her arms out to her sides like she's walking on a tightrope, "whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." He doesn't even crack a smile- how boring. The Mistress grins.

"Ask me." She steps closer.

"Shut up!" His eyebrows draw in and he gets so angry that she wonders if he would hurt her. She draws her hand away as if his pain could burn her.

"Ask me!" She places her hands on her hips, leaning forwards again, "Come on, you know you want to. You want to know what my plan is." The Mistress circles the Doctor, feels the sway of the ship and moves with it.

"You'll be surprised. I've got a gift for you." She leans in closer.

"You know, I've been up and down your timeline, meeting all those silly people who died to keep you alive." Missy almost sings the lines, disregarding the humans with a wave of her hand and poking him in the chest.

"And you know what I worked out? What you really need." She looks into his eyes, swaying still.

"For what?" The Doctor's lip curls in disgust and if Missy didn't know better she would say he hated her then.

"To know that you're just like me!" She spreads her arms as she speaks. The Time Lady can't help the smirk that appears on her face.


	46. Chapter 46

The T.A.R.D.I.S phone starts to ring. Missy points vaguely in its direction.

"Oh, and now it begins." She lowers her arm, still not looking away from the Doctor. The Mistress steps back, spreading her arms again and bowing her head.

"Doctor, I do believe you're on call. Miss Oswald expects." The Doctor goes to answer it with a shocked gasp. She clasps her hands and continues "Who else but the girl who's got your number?" Her reveal is anything but a mistake. She tacks on a "Whoops!" anyway and draws clenched fists in front of her face. She looks down, briefly becomes the caricature of 'I-made-a-mistake-and-I-feel-awful-about-it', can't hold it for long and lets her hands drop to in front of her mouth, grinning wickedly behind them.

"It was you!" He turns back to her again, mouth agape with his shock.

"Computer helpline, love. That's the one. Best helpline in the universe." She interrupts his trip down memory lane with a cockney accent and an even crueller grin. For seconds there is near silence as the phone rings and her Cybermen pull the ship to pieces. She can feel a trace of horror at how much she'd meddled with his time stream before he clamps down on it, putting up tissue paper barriers but barriers none the less.

"You put us together." She corrects him.

"I kept you together."

"Why?"

"Cos she's perfect, innit?" She drops the accent again, "The control freak and the man who should never be controlled." They are both stumbling now, the floor shuddering beneath them, "You'd go to hell if she asked." She needles him further, drives the pain in, "And she would."

"The phone's ringing, Doctor. Can you hear that?" The Mistress smirks, jabbing violently at the phone, "Now _that_ is the sound of your chain being yanked."

"Heel, Doctor!" She roars, the sound somehow more primal than the wind tearing outside and stars dying. A stray piece of hair falls into her face.

"Help me, Doctor. Help me. Help me, Doctor." She rolls her eyes as the Doctor rushes past her, her voice pitched high. Idly the Mistress inspects her nails.

"Clara?" The distress in the Doctor's voice makes her feel briefly apologetic.

He paces despite the staggering flight of the plane.

"Danny's dead, Clara." The ship rocks dangerously.

"Clara." A pause.

"Clara?" A longer pause.

"Clara, don't do it. Just don't do it!"

"I know what it does. If you turn it on he'll become a Cyberman." Oh, her foolish Doctor.

"Not yet, he isn't." The Mistress leans on the wall near the door.

"Stop the pain and he'll kill you!" Except that would ruin everything she had planned.

"I'm not going to help you commit suicide."

"Clara? Clara, no!" The Doctor grips the T.A.R.D.I.S for support.

Blondie joins them. Missy turns a little, gives the semblance of courtesy.

"Doctor! The Cybermen are in. The plane's going down." Blondie panics.

"Oh, great." The Mistress coos, nodding at Blondie, "It's the daughter one." She raises her eyebrows sarcastically, "Do you like her? I like her." It's a lie- she really doesn't. Missy frowns, typing the commands into her bracelet. The plane swerves and the Doctor and the human grab ceiling straps.

Her Cybermen finally manage to wrench the door off and Missy adjusts her footing to not be torn out by the pressure change. The human doesn't fare so well and flies out the door.

Blondie screams. The Doctor's face contorts in anger again as he screams over the wind too.

"Why did you do that? You didn't have to do that!" The blonde keeps screaming. Missy watches a chair follow her out and finally grasps one of the straps dangling from the ceiling for stability. She keeps both feet planted firmly on the floor and lets her right arm be caught by the wind.

Meanwhile the Doctor swings everywhere helplessly- she supposes both of their regenerations are more fragile than the previous few.

She pulls herself closer to him, grabbing another strap and shouting back over the sound of tearing metal.

"Oh, don't be so selfish. I'm going to miss her, too." Her former restraints and poor Ossie's paperwork fly out the hole in the wall, "In fact, you know what? Just for that, I'm leaving." The Mistress raises her bracelet to her mouth to issue her commands.

"Boys, blow up this plane and, I don't know," She pauses- thinks of the first place that comes to mind, notices that the Doctor is still struggling, "Belgium, yeah? Kill some Belgians. Might as well. They're not even French." The Time Lady leans away from the door, one hand still gripping the ceiling strap.

"Byeeee!" She shrieks the word, raising the arm fully in a sort of odd wave before she is teleported out.


	47. Chapter 47

Seb stands beside her now.

On their screen the Doctor screams, struggles to hold on.

The ship explodes, sending him into a freefall. Briefly Missy reflects that he's lucky he didn't get speared by shrapnel or hit a Cyberman- she probably would have been burned to death. Again.

That seems to be a thing with her.

"Well, that's very boring. Oh, he's just going to squish. What kind of a way is that to die? That man has _no_ finesse, none." She can't help but sneer as he falls. She knows he will live but she still feels almost ashamed for him.

"Well, it's quite dramatic." The Mistress turns, disregarding the stupid AI- oh the irony.

"You're an AI interface. Kindly delete your opinions, thank you." The Doctor fumbles in his jacket and the AI leans forwards curiously as if it would give him a better view.

"W-w-what's he doing? Is he? Is he? Oh, no! Oh, no, no, no. N-now, that's-" Even Missy is begrudgingly impressed- mostly that he hasn't dropped the sonic yet. The Doctor disappears momentarily in the clouds but then up pops the T.A.R.D.I.S. The Mistress looks down, contemplating whether it would be more gratifying to erase the floor under the AI's feet or just delete him.

"Oh! Permission to squeeeee-" Oh, Rassilon, that's annoying! Better delete him immediately!

"eeeee-" She looks back up at the Doctor's progress, zapping the AI before he can move. The T.A.R.D.I.S rises further and the Doctor unlocks the doors, falling right in.

Business done, Missy opens her parasol and programs the coordinates into her vortex manipulator.

She is blinded for a second while it works then a graveyard appears below her. The Doctor is behind Clara who is hugging her metal boyfriend.

The Doctor turns to watch her descent. She steps across the ground, parasol still held aloft- even the puppy turns to look at her now.

The Mistress closes her parasol.

"Oh, that was _brilliant_! Oh, I love the telly here, but did you see _that_?" She frowns, focusing on the human, "Oh, Clara, you poor thing. You must feel like death. Let me pop away the pain." Missy can't help the grin that spreads across her face as she pulls out her phone and lets her finger tap the button gently.

The Doctor rips it from her hands harshly and she feels a thrill go through her. She pretends to be shocked as he tosses it away and if she's honest she really _is_ shocked. The objects clatters against a gravestone.

"Don't you dare! Don't you think about it!" The Mistress looks at him, arms still suspended in the air.

"Oh, sorry, hon," She throws the word at him, chucking her arms out with it,"I'm just getting a bit carried away. It's your friends," Missy clasps her hands, points at the puppy, head following the movement. She laughs sheepishly, clasping her hands again, "they're so more-ish. Hmm?" She doesn't miss Clara retrieving her device. Good dog.

"Oh, stop looking all cross-pants. I'm here to give you a gift. Could you at least try and be excited?" She sighs exasperatedly, turning away from him.

"What gift?" Missy brings the bracelet to her face, ready to demonstrate.

"Cyberdears!" They come to attention with hydraulics hissing, "Look at Mummy! Raise your arms. Lower your arms. Raise your right. Lower your right. Turn on the spot. There are exits at the front and rear of the aircraft. Please follow the lights up the aisle." They follow every command, even the silly ones. The Mistress rests a hand on her hip, watches them proudly. As she turns to the Doctor she lets her gaze travel across the army.

"You see, Doctor? The power to slaughter whole worlds at a time, then make them do a safety briefing. Everyone who ever lived, man, woman and child, is now at my command. An indestructible army to rage across the universe. The more they kill, the more they recruit." The Mistress clearly outlines their power, knowing he can't accept. She grins, turns her gaze back to him.

"Happy birthday."


	48. Chapter 48

He just stares at her. The Mistress huffs, lowering her arms and shrugging a little. She inspects her nails when he doesn't respond.

"Oh! You didn't know, did you? " The Mistress tilts her gaze up to him, "It's lucky one of us remembers these things." She grins at the Doctor, stepping forward and spreading her arms out towards him, "Happy birthday…" She frowns again when he makes no move to accept her present (although that _would_ ruin her plan)  
"Mister President." The Time Lady sings the last words, gently taking his wrist in her own and clasping the control bracelet around it. She activates it and steps back again, curtsying, head bowed.

"Doctor." The Cybermen speak in unison. The Doctor looks around at them, his face trying to decide which emotion to show. She lets her expression and arms drop when he still doesn't reply. The Mistress slouches then straightens again.

"Tiny bit pleased? Oh, go on, crack a smile. I want to see if your eyebrows drop off." She vaguely indicates the caterpillars above his eyes, arms swinging idly. He stares at her in disgust and confusion.

"All of this. All of it, just to give me an army?" His eyebrows raise and she scoffs.

"Well, I don't need one, do I? Armies are for people who think they're right." Her voice pitches up and the Mistress grins nastily, "And nobody thinks they're righter than you." The Time Lady continues smirking. He begins to try and remove it and she clamps her palms around his wrist, halting his efforts.

"Give a good man firepower, and he'll never run out of people to kill." He walks backwards and she moves with him.

"I don't want an army!" He rips his arm from her as he shouts.

"Well, that's the trouble! Yes, you do!" She screams back at him, eyes wide. The Time Lady straightens completely, going on tiptoes and throwing her arms out in frustration. She forces herself down again. Both hands raise to point at him, "You've always wanted one!" She steps back onto the height of another burial mound.

"All those people suffering in the Dalek camps?" She can almost see them, gestures out towards all the slaves. They stand around them now, faces grimy and clothes tattered. Their eyes are dead. She doesn't move her eyes from his face, afraid of meeting their death-defying stares. Her arm drops again. His eyes by contrast are wary. "Now you can save them. All those bad guys winning all the wars? Go and get the good guys back." She flings her thumb back carelessly.

"Nobody can have that power." His voice is grave as he meets her gaze. She stands properly, the Dalek's slaves having disappeared.

"You will, because you don't have a choice." The Mistress glares at her friend. She knows it would ruin her whole plan but she just wishes he would stop being so stubborn, stand still for once. "There's only one way you can stop these clouds from opening up and killing all your little pets down here." She raises a finger to signify the singularity of his options, stretching out her arms and turning around again. The Mistress waves off the significance of his pets. She draws her arms in and spins again to look him in the eyes.

"Conquer the universe, Mister President." He can't keep their gaze but in the seconds between them she sees sorrow and guilt. Her hair swings in front of her face but she barely notices, certainly doesn't care. She lets one knee drop to the floor despite this body's weakening joints. Both hands rest on her left knee and she bows her head to her best friend.

"Show a bad girl how it's done."


	49. Chapter 49

"Why are you doing this?" He cries out, arms spread as hers had been so many times that day.

She turns her gaze to him and speaks of feelings. Their gazes connect desperately and she _knows_ they both need each other so much.

"I need you to know we're not so different." She tries to make him see. She needs Florence back by her side but she needs him too. She needs him so much. She tries to smile- can't, "I need my friend back." The echo of drums resounds in her head and even one of them could help soothe the ache. She tries to tempt him, pleads with his conscience, "Every battle, every war, every invasion. From now on, you decide the outcome." Her voice pitches lower and some distant part of her tells her to stop but the voice is so far away and she wants the Doctor to accept the gift- accept her friendship.

He fiddles with the bracelet. She remembers where she is. Her face contorts into a smirk and she takes hold of her emotions, forcing them back onto the rails.

"What's the matter, Mister President? Don't you trust yourself?" He holds the bracelet in both his hands and takes a quaking breath. His gaze travels to the human then he looks around the cemetery. The Mistress has a feeling he is seeing something else.

Thunder rumbles overhead.

She sees the moment he decides- his body language shifting.

He turns to her.

"Thank you. Thank you so much." He kneels too and tenderly places a hand on either side of her face. Her hearts speed up and she closes her mouth to prevent the gasp trying to escape.

Gently he presses his lips to hers and the Mistress knows nothing more than him. His mind smoothes over hers and she closes her eyes too.

His voice rumbles comfortingly and she listens, letting the sound wear at the edges of her pain. His hands descend to her shoulders and the weight of them makes her want to grab for him, hold him close.

He pushes himself up and away from her and she can only watch as he passes her. She is paralysed by shock as he leaves again.

Careful of her weary body she stands, hating the trembling of her hand over her left heart which throbs painfully in unison with the right. The Mistress watches the Doctor shouts and rant, despair and hurt written over her face.

He turns back once, grinning like his first regeneration after the war. She steps forward as he steps back, lips parted with everything left unsaid pouring into her gaze.

"Do you know what I am?" She manages to raise her eyebrows in curiosity, "I am an idiot," She doesn't know if he's joking and smiles a little, privately agreeing with the assessment, "with a box and a screwdriver. Just passing through, helping out, learning. I don't need an army. I never have, because I've got them. Always them. Because love, it's not an emotion. Love is a promise." He finishes pointing almost violently at his pet and its pet. She gets the point regardless and sees that she loves him and Florence both in some ways- or it's the closest human equivalent.

The Cyber-soldier holds the ape to his cold metal body.

"And _he_ will _never_ hurt her. P E, catch!" The Doctor throws the bracelet and Missy watches it arc through the air, begging gravity to be lenient and not let it break. The Cyberman catches it and she sighs in relief internally.

"You didn't notice, did you? While you were doing all your silly orders, while you where showing off, the one soldier not obeying." The Doctor begins his victory speech and the Mistress only _just_ manages to not roll her eyes.

"No, that's wrong. That's impossible." _And I'm a Slitheen_. She mentally tacks on. Her voice softens a little as she lies.


	50. Chapter 50

"The rain will not fall." Says the Cyberman as he detaches from the human. It fits the bracelet around its wrist and takes what the Mistress presumes is meant to be a threatening step towards her.

"Oh? Why won't it?" She questions, playing along.

"The clouds will burn." It steps directly in front of her and she has to tilt her head up slightly- why couldn't she have regenerated taller?

"And who'll burn them?" She rests her hands on her hips, a symbol of defiance.

"I will burn them."

"How?" She smirks, taunting it.

"I will burn." Her plan is beginning to come together.

"One burning Cyberman is hardly going to save the planet." She suggests subtly. Part of her will be sad to see them go- they were quite fun really.

"Correct." She supposes she couldn't have them hanging around anyway- not with Florence around. They aren't the most reliable of lackeys. Cyber-soldier turns around, stepping atop a burial mound and raising his arm to his contorted face.

"Attention! This is not a good day. This is Earth's darkest hour. And look at you miserable lot." The Mistress is already quite bored of the shouting. "We are the Fallen. But today, we shall rise." She swings her arms idly, closing her eyes and trying to ignore the yelling. She snaps them open and glances behind her- where is the old fool?

"The army of the dead will save the land of the living." He was meant to grab the Blondie (or not, she couldn't care less) then try and kill her, "This is not the order of a general, nor the whim of a lunatic".

"Excuse me?" I mean of course she is a lunatic but this is all part of a very complex and delicate plan? It was anything _but_ a whim. He turns back to shouting and the Mistress will never be so happy to see something disappear she thinks.

"This is a promise. The promise of a soldier!" Soldier-robot turns to the puppy, "You will sleep safe tonight." And- _finally_ \- he activates his boots. The rest of the Cybermen follow, flying off after him.

The cloud explodes and the Mistress sways slightly, vision marred by the influx of light. She folds her hands behind her back, feeling slightly calmed by the fireworks.

"Well. The clouds have all gone." Says the Doctor's human. She hears the Doctor step forwards then sees him pass by her.

"Yes, burned up. Totally burnt. Burnt to nothing. Sorry." She recites off by heart.

"Ten zero eleven, zero zero by zero two" He spins to face her, recognising the coordinates.

"What did you say?" She stares off into the distance.

"The current coordinates of Gallifrey. It's returned to it's original location. Didn't you ever think to look?" They aren't but it's a bit of revenge for his brushing her off. She glances at his human.

"You are lying!" She's somewhat surprised he figures it out so soon, knows he will look anyway.

"We can, we can go together, just you and me. Just like the old days." The Mistress tries to distract him. She can feel his gaze on her back and wishes that it could be true.

"You'd be clapped in irons." The Time Lady swallows but knows she would.

"If you like."

"Doctor, I'm assuming you'll remember those coordinates?" She turns to look at the human who finally reveals that she has the Mistress' phone. Missy steps forward and the puppy turns to her, pointing the business end of her phone at her.

"No. No, don't you dare. I won't let you." The Mistress' hearts are somewhat warmed by his protests and the odd pointing he does at the human as if they need to clarify which of them is holding a weapon. Is there anyone else threatening to kill her around here?

Well- aside from the Doctor's Cyber-friend- she isn't sure where he's got off to.

"Old friend, is she? If you have ever let this creature live, everything that happened today, is on you. All of it, on _you_. And you're not going to let her live again." The Doctor panics.

"Clara, all I'm doing is not letting you kill her. I never said I was letting her live." He attempts to soothe the wound up human though his eyes obviously scream 'I'm going to pretend to kill her because I can't let her not live'.

"Really?" The puppy doesn't stop glaring at her.

"If that's the only thing that will stop you, yes." His voice is low. The human doesn't look into his eyes and passes the Mistress' phone over. The human doesn't see the way he fiddles with the controls as she turns away. The human doesn't hear the Doctor's pain and distress but the Time Lady can feel it.

She grins, pretending she doesn't know what he has done. It dims a little as she walks to the nearest gravestone, peeking at the human as if confused.

"Seriously. Oh, Doctor. To save her soul?" She backs between two gravestones, swinging an arm over each with a cruel grin. The Mistress chuckles but the sound is cut off as she asks, "But who, my dear, will save yours?" He rubs a hand against his face, not breaking eye contact with her.

"Say something nice. Please?"


	51. Chapter 51

His hand drops at her request and he sighs. He stares at her helplessly, as if she were the one holding a potentially dangerous weapon on him.

"You win." She smiles.

"I know." He raises the phone into her line of sight.

She hears the Doctor's friend land- right on time.

The Cyberman shoots her and the energy powers her vortex manipulator. She lands heavily on the T.A.R.D.I.S floor.

The old girl hums in worry but the Mistress just grins, pulling off the destroyed vortex manipulator with a small cheer and throwing it to the ground.

"I know how to get Florence back." The T.A.R.D.I.S doesn't seem as pleased as she is but she doesn't let it bother her. She switches a screen on, pulling the parking brake off and manoeuvring them into the vortex. The Mistress leans back into a plush chair, feet resting against the console.

On the screen she watches as a boy emerges from a portal. The Doctor's human cries but she laughs exhilarated. Her T.A.R.D.I.S starts sending out a warning but she ignores it, pulling two identical bracelets from a pocket on the inside of her coat.

"These-" She proclaims, standing again, "Will bring back Florence." She sets the coordinates and the T.A.R.D.I.S shudders as it sets off again, landing in an alleyway just moments after she remembers leaving the Nethersphere for the graveyard.

After all- it wouldn't do for her to meet herself when they both have business to take care of.

"Right." She says to break the silence. Again the T.A.R.D.I.S sends a sense of foreboding into the Mistress' mind but she ignores it, stepping out into cloud-covered London. The T.A.R.D.I.S doesn't camouflage itself this time- probably throwing a strop.

It takes only moments to lock onto the frequency of the Nethersphere and she dives in, landing on a white tiled floor. It flickers dangerously and she curses, running through the doorway into the main corridor.

"Seems like I'm a bit late." There are millions upon millions of houses and doors and corridors but the path to Florence's room is not something she could ever forget. She kicks through the door and barrels into the room.

On the bed sits Florence, staring at the ground.

"Florence!" She cries out at seeing her and dives onto the bed. It both reacts and doesn't. The human takes no notice.

"Florence!" She shouts again. The human doesn't even flinch.

The Mistress grabs her arm and the human flickers- still not reacting.

"What happened?" The whole room unfocusses and the Mistress can feel the rush of time around them but not the sensation of Florence's coat against her hand.

"I'm-" Florence stands and walks to the window. It sharpens with their approach. The Mistress joins her, feeling icy fear clutch at her hearts. She places a bracelet on the windowsill and it seems more solid than anything else in the room.

"I'm out of time. Aren't I?" The Time Lady chokes on a chuckle which becomes a laugh. Oh- the irony!

"I wasn't fast enough and now you're _permanently_ dead!" She can't help the tears streaming down her face as she collapses against the white walls. The human looks down and for a moment the Mistress thinks she has seen her but she can't even feel Florence's mind anymore and the human just huffs sadly.

"I wish I could do it again." The words are almost silent and distorted so much the Mistress can barely hear them. She stops laughing then, only crying into her hands as the human sits on the bed again.

"I wish I could see her again."


	52. Chapter 52

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second to last chapter and that makes me incredibly sad :( 
> 
> Also this chapter appears to walk the line between friendship and love between both Missy and the Doctor and Missy and Florence so read it as you like I guess~

 

The Mistress curls her arms around herself, pulling the coat tighter and knocks on the door.

Almost immediately the Doctor's head pokes out, bewildered.

"Hello Missy." He focuses on her, straightening again with a cautious look on his face, "What are you here for?" She doesn't look at him, keeps her eyes focused on the design on his shirt.

"I-" The Time Lady doesn't know what to say, "I-" He holds her in his arms, wrapping her next to his chest.

"Come inside." He mutters against her hair- down for once. She does. His T.A.R.D.I.S is uneasy but he quietens it with a small pat against the central column. He seats her in an arm chair, books piled high around it and takes off the parking brake, knowing it would only disturb his friend, before settling them down again on an uninhabited planet. She says nothing as he reengages the brakes so he pulls a chair across from her and leaves to make some tea.

When he returns she hasn't moved an inch. He passes a mug to her and she looks up.

"Tea." He explains with a slight smile, "Makes everything better." The Mistress looks away but accepts the mug, the corners of her mouth flickering upwards for a moment.

They drink their tea and set the mugs side by side on the small table next to her chair after placing the books beside their brethren on the floor.

"I lost her." She finally begins, voice low and words almost a whisper. Her eyes tentatively meet his and he thinks momentarily about what she could mean. He vaguely notices they are rimmed by red- she must have been crying. The penny drops and he sighs.

"Your human." She nods, licks her lips, swallows.

"Yes." They are both silent.

"I'm sorry, Mistress." He brings his hand to rest on her knee and she nods, drawing in a sharp breath.

"It was all my fault." The Doctor switches awkwardly, takes one of her small hands in each of his and rubs circles into the palms. The Mistress doesn't notice.

"How?" The Time Lady shudders and swallows again. Haunted eyes meet his and the pain in them hurts him too.

"We stopped off on Earth. It was only meant to be a short visit." Her voice is hoarse and she coughs, bringing a trembling hand to her mouth, "There were Daleks." Carefully he reaches out with his mind, letting it brush against hers. She says nothing more, taking the connection and feeding images into it. The moment she realised they had found Florence and the slow motion of her death. He sees her killing every single monster she could even though she hadn't tried to send it but her memories flow towards him and she can't stop them until it is over.

He holds her gently, presses a kiss against her head.

"You love her Mistress." She lays her forehead against his shoulder.

"I know." Her tears make her face itchy but she lets them rest on her cheeks as the Doctor soothes her.

"She must have been incredible." The Mistress laughs bitterly.

"You have no idea." And begins crying again. The Doctor's hand moves comfortingly over her back, between her shaking shoulders.

"It's okay. That's the problem with our humans- they're so beautiful and brilliant and brave that we can't avoid loving them." The Time Lady sobs against his chest and he pulls her in closer.

"I'm sorry it had to happen to you too Koschei." The woman bunches her fists in his top, shivering in his arms, "But it will be okay. You will never stop loving her but it will fade. You loved Lucy too, remember?" But Lucy was never like Florence and Lucy never _really_ loved her back. He kisses her hair and closes his eyes.

"You never forget but one day everything will be okay." The Doctor rests his head against his best friend's, propping his feet up on the Mistress' abandoned chair and shifting to ease the pressure on his back.

"And I will always love you- remember that." The Time Lady wraps her arms around him too.

"I know. I love you too, Theta." The Doctor lets the tears settle on his cheeks, exhaling gently.

"Always." The Time Lady echoes the sentiment through her mind.

With the heavy weight of the Mistress on his chest the Doctor falls asleep, an exhausted Time Lady following soon after.

The T.A.R.D.I.S dims the lights and raises the temperature slightly.


	53. Chapter 53

Florence stays put when the people start disappearing.

If travelling with the Mistress had taught her anything it was that running into trouble was stupid and frequently ended in death. 

Not that she could die again- at least she hoped not- or that that’s the reason she died.

After several hours she taps into the interface to find out what’s happening. The screen shows a list of names.

 _These are people._ She tries to communicate to herself but the fact she is meant to feel sad for such a large loss of life doesn’t get through.

She supposes it’s because they would always die, had always been destined to end up uploaded and downloaded into metal bodies. Or because she had seen that the future still exists no matter who dies.

Instead she feels glad she isn’t one.

The woman wanders the corridors for several hours, humming to herself in the silence.

Absolutely everyone is gone.

She checks the interface again- comes up blank. She’s not on the system obviously but she’s still the last one left.

Florence turns it off again with a flick of her hand but something catches her eye at the last moment and the human runs through the hand signals until she gets the empty list back up.

Empty except for her own name.

The simulation of blood chills in her veins and the woman looks behind herself as if she is being followed.

“It’s nothing.” Her voice doesn’t really echo in these halls but nevertheless she shivers, “Definitely nothing of concern.” She says, lips pursed and already clicking through to access the room files.

The door is the same as all the rest.

Florence places a hand on its surface, pulls back.

One last time she checks the list.

Her name is still there.

Looking through the window produces nothing of value so Florence breathes out slowly and turns the handle.

The door  opens and the human can see herself sitting on the bed.

She steps forwards into the room but the other her takes no notice. Even when Florence stands  right in front of herself there is no reaction or indication that she has been seen.

“Excuse me.” Still no response.

“Hello.” Florence stares at the woman in confusion. The woman stands and walks to the window. Florence watches, feet rooted to the ground.

“I wish I could do it again." The words are almost silent but Florence hears them anyway. She straightens as the woman sighs.

“I wish I could see her again." The other her is seated on the bed again but Florence’s gaze is instead fixed on the bracelet on  the windowsill.

The ghost of herself makes no movement.

 

The first thing Florence does upon reappearing in her parents’ house is check the date.

It’s a few weeks after when she had left. A glance at her reflection in a mirror shows that she looks roughly the same as when she left- she has to hope no one will notice the difference before she can find her way back to the Mistress.

She takes about half an hour to redress in clothes more similar to what she used to wear and to steel herself enough to walk out of her room and find her, likely beyond worried, family.

 

There is screaming and crying and Florence finds herself feeling cold.

She holds them close, wraps them in her arms, lets herself cry finally.

The last time she had seen them she had confessed everything to them days before each of their deaths. They had been frail and so old- a point she had never reached with the Mistress’ technology.

“I’ve missed you.” She says as she remembers what feeling human is, “So much.” And eventually they stop questioning her.

 

It takes months and she can still feel the betrayal in their hearts whenever she is near. They never stop glancing at her when she turns away and confusion is written across their minds at her actions.

It hurts but she understands why.

 

She tries to contact the Mistress every few hours in the first few months, feeling the pressures of human convention crushing and confining her. Most days are just spent in her room, door locked and blinds pulled shut, trying to squash her mind back into being human.

 

Florence dreams of the Time Lady and travelling and wakes up crying. Only after four months of being returned she seeks help. The counsellor is worse than useless because as soon as she starts speaking about her issues the younger woman (technically) tries to tell her that she should lower her expectations of other people.

After seeing what humans do in the future Florence doesn’t think she ever could. She tells the counsellor this and gets referred to a psychiatrist.

They’re only slightly more useful so she goes every few months. Then the man asks her if maybe she’s made everything up because aside from her ‘delusions’ there is no other sign of mental illness (she never lets him know anything about her real mental state- those questions are fastidiously lied to because she is going so she can tell someone about her adventures, not to fix herself) as he rests a hand on her knee.

She doesn’t come back but she doesn’t hurt him for his presumptions- she supposes that is what being human is.

 

After her adventures further education is simple. She sweeps through human life as a genius. Still she cries sometimes when the banal life she lives fails to live up to her lives with the Mistress but she has grants and enough money and status for her family to live comfortably.

 

She meets a man and he doesn’t measure up to the Mistress but he’s kind and smart for this era and completely enamoured with her and sometimes companions need companions. They marry but Florence never stops trying to contact the Mistress. He accepts this and believes her stories.

She knows it upsets him sometimes but she takes him into her arms then and lets her mind soothe his.

She gives him children and they work well together- she wishes the human could be more to her but she is content and he is in love and when he call her his own Mistress and places his forehead to hers she feels a rush of warmth and affection for him.

Only when their children ask does Florence realise she loves him. When she says as much the shock on the man’s face is priceless and she laughs and holds her family close. He asks her about it in bed that night with her head laid on his chest.

“I loved her- really loved her, would have done anything she asked. Did do anything she asked.” She smiles softly, “I love her still but I love you too- you’ve made me human again.” The woman picks up his hand, lays it on top of hers.

“Well, more human.” They laugh and the joy in his mind makes her heart feel like a sun.

 

One day she meets the Mistress again. The Time Lady seems shocked beyond belief but quickly covers it.

“Florence.” It’s one word but the weight it carries makes the woman look away.

“It’s me.” She looks back at the Time Lady, “I tried to contact you.” The Mistress seems surprised again.

“I never- I never got your message.” The alien pales, swallows and sucks in a breath through her teeth, “I tried-” Her gaze catches on Florence’s wrist and her hand shoots out to grasp her hand.

“That’s it!” She looks up at Florence confusedly.

“What’s it?” Florence responds, equally puzzled.

“The bracelet- the real you wasn’t in the room! You left the room and an echo was created because there was so much of you in the system! You just popped back in later and got out- how could I be so stupid? Almost think I was the Doctor!” Her husband comes back at this point.

“Mistress.” His smile quickly drops when both human and Time Lady turn to him. He passes his wife a drink.

“Oh.” He nods as if confirming something, “You are _The_ Mistress.” The Gallifreyan seems unsure suddenly.

“Yes- she is.” Says Florence shortly. She glances over the Time Lady.

“This is my husband.” The man tenses at this, taking her hand and frowning. Florence squeezes back comfortingly. She introduces him and the Mistress nods.

“Well I take it you already know me.” Florence’s husband sighs.

“Yes. I do. Please take care of her.” He looks away and Florence looks at him sharply.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well you’re going to leave now, aren’t you? That’s why she’s here, isn’t it?” The Mistress frowns and Florence looks to her in distress.

“I don’t- I didn’t even know she was alive.” Breathes out the Mistress, eyes fixed on Florence’s, “I thought she had died until two minutes ago.” The Time Lady smiles bitterly.

“I don’t think I could travel with her again- not without worrying about her dying. It’s better for her to stay here with you. She’s safe on Earth- the Doctor’s looking over it.” The Mistress looks away.

“You make her happy.” The man sighs.

“But you made her happier.” The Time Lady pauses, glances at Florence.

“I can’t- I just can’t lose her again.” Florence’s companion straightens.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.” Say both Florence and the Mistress at the same time.

“Do I- do you see me in your past?” The Time Lady asks. Florence clasps her husband’s hand tightly and shakes her head. 

“No- I’m sorry. You are welcome to visit us now though- we can give you the address and you can meet our children and-” The woman hiccups and the Mistress sniffs.

“I- Thank you.” The two time travellers hold each other close.

Florence’s husband smiles softly.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading- I really hope you’ve enjoyed the journey as much as I have :)


End file.
